ptain of the sea!
I'll give you a hundred ducats
If you will set me free."

"I will not take a hundred,
You're worth much more, you know;
I will sell you to the Sultan
For a hundred gold sequins;
You set yourself far too low."

"You will not take a hundred--
Oh well! then let them be,
But I have a faithful lover,
Who, as you may discover,
Will never abandon me."

Upon the windlass sitting,
The lady began to sing:
"Oh, come to me, my lover!"
From afar a breeze just rising
In the rigging began to ring.

Louder and ever louder
The wind began to blow:
Said the captain, "I think your lover
Is the squall which is coming over,
Or the devil who has us in tow."

Stronger and ever stronger
The tempest roared and rang,
"There are rocks ahead and the wind dead aft,
Thank you, my love," the lady laughed;
And loud to the wind she sang.

"Oh, go with your cursed lover,
To the devil to sing for me!"
Thus cried the angry rover,
And threw the lady over
Into the raging sea.

But changing to a seagull,
Over the waves she flew:
"Oh captain, captain mine," sung she,
"You will not swing on the gallows-tree,
For you shall drown in the foaming sea--
Oh captain, for ever adieu!"

I must in honesty admit that this my _debut_ as an Italian poet was not
noticed in any of the reviews--possibly because I did not send it to
them--and there were no indications that anybody considered that a new
Dante had arisen in the land. It is true, as Marietta told me with much
delight, that the printer, or his foreman, had declared it was a very
good song indeed; but then he was an interested party. And Marietta also
kindly praised it to the skies (after she had corrected it); but then
Marietta was herself a far better poet than I can ever hope to be, and
could afford to be generous.

The reader will pardon me if I avail myself of the opportunity to give
another Italian ballad which I wrote on a theme which I also picked up in
Florence.

Il Giardino d'Amore, o La Figlia del Re, e il Contino Stregone.

Era un giovine Contino,
Di tutto il paese il fior,
Aveva un bel giardino,
Il bel giardin d'amor.

"Chi batte alla mia porta?"
Domanda il bel Contin'.
"Son la figlia del re,
Vo vedere il tuo giardin'?"

"Entra pur nel mio giardino,
O b