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And a mighty wind had swept the leaves, And still the corse was bare!

"Then down I cast me on my face,
And first began to weep,

For I knew my secret then was one
That earth refused to keep,-
Or land or sea, though he should be
Ten thousand fathoms deep.

"So wills the fierce avenging sprite,
Till blood for blood atones!
Ay, though he 's buried in a cave,
And trodden down with stones,

And years have rotted off his flesh,-
The world shall see his bones!

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"O God! that horrid, horrid dream Besets me now awake!

Again-again, with dizzy brain,

The human life I take;

And my red right hand grows raging hot,

Like Cranmer's at the stake.

"And still no peace for the restless clay

Will wave or mould allow;

The horrid thing pursues my soul,

It stands before me now!"

The fearful boy looked up, and saw
Huge drops upon his brow.

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1829.

That very night, while gentle sleep

The urchin eyelids kissed,

Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn
Through the cold and heavy mist;
And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gyves upon his wrist.

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Thomas Hood.

THE STATUE AND THE BUST

THERE's a palace in Florence, the world knows well,

And a statue watches it from the square,

And this story of both do our townsmen tell. 3

Ages ago, a lady there,

At the farthest window facing the East
Asked, “Who rides by with the royal air?" 6

The bridesmaids' prattle around her ceased;
She leaned forth, one on either hand;
They saw how the blush of the bride in-

creased

They felt by its beats her heart expand-
As one at each ear and both in a breath
Whispered, "The Great-Duke Ferdinand."

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That selfsame instant, underneath,

The Duke rode past in his idle way,

Empty and fine like a swordless sheath. 15

Gay he rode, with a friend as gay,

Till he threw his head back-" Who is she?" A bride the Riccardi brings home to-day." 18

Hair in heaps lay heavily

Over a pale brow spirit-pure

Carved like the heart of the coal-black tree, 21

Crisped like a war steed's encolure-
And vainly sought to dissemble her eyes
Of the blackest black our eyes endure,

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And lo, a blade for a knight's emprise
Filled the fine empty sheath of a man,-
The Duke grew straightway brave and wise. 27

He looked at her as a lover can;

She looked at him, as one who awakes:
The past was a sleep, and her life began.

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Now, love so ordered for both their sakes,
A feast was held that selfsame night
In the pile which the mighty shadow makes. 33

(For Via Larga is three-parts light,

But the palace overshadows one,

Because of a crime, which may God requite! 36

To Florence and God the wrong was done
Through the first republic's murder there
By Cosimo and his cursed son.)

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The Duke (with the statue's face in the square) Turned in the midst of his multitude

At the bright approach of the bridal pair.

Face to face the lovers stood

A single minute and no more,

While the bridegroom bent as a man subdued

Bowed till his bonnet brushed the floor-
For the Duke on the lady a kiss conferred.
As the courtly custom was of yore.

In a minute can lovers exchange a word?
If a word did pass, which I do not think,
Only one out of a thousand heard.

That was the bridegroom. At day's brink
He and his bride were alone at last
In a bed chamber by a taper's blink.

Calmly he said that her lot was cast,

That the door she had passed was shut on her
Till the final catafalk repassed.

The world meanwhile, its noise and stir,
Through a certain window facing the East
She could watch like a convent's chronicler.

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Since passing the door might lead to a feast,

And a feast might lead to so much beside,

He, of many evils, chose the least.

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"Freely I choose too," said the bride"Your window and its world suffice," 'Replied the tongue, while the heart replied--

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"If I spend the night with that devil twice, May his window serve as my loop of hell Whence a damned soul looks on paradise!

"I fly to the Duke who loves me well, Sit by his side and laugh at sorrow Ere I count another ave-bell. ·

"T is only the coat of a page to borrow,

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And tie my hair in a horse-boy's trim,
And I save my soul-but not to-morrow"- 75

(She checked herself and her eye grew dim) "My father tarries to bless my state: I must keep it one day more for him.

"Is one day more so long to wait?

Moreover the Duke rides past, I know;
We shall see each other, sure as fate."

She turned on her side and slept. Just so!
So we resolve on a thing and sleep:
So did the lady, ages ago.

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