he
day. They mutually seek one another; Alcidalis, who only dreams of
Zelinda, has every good fortune he does not want. He believes his
_fiancee_ has been married to an elderly Italian duke distractedly in
love with the young princess: "As we are never so fond of flowers, as in
the beginning of spring, or towards the end of autumne; the first for
their novelty, and the others because we think we shall see them no
more: so the pleasures of love are at no time so dear to us as in the
beginning of our youth and the approaches of our age." Alcidalis,
deceiving the jealous vigilance of the duke, makes the tour of a
promontory in a boat by night, climbs to a window by means of a
rope-ladder, and in the second visit gains the favour of the duchess,
who was not at all the lady whom he thought to find. "Ye gods! do I
again behold the fair Zelinda? cries Alcidalis in his joy (a very
pertinent question, for it is to be remembred there was no light)."

Very unseasonably the husband arrives; Alcidalis has as much difficulty
in escaping as Don Juan; and the duchess, just like the first mistress
of Byron's hero, bursts out into reproaches against her bewildered
husband, who has much trouble to obtain her pardon. "O woman! woman!"
continues the author in an apostrophe Byron would not have disowned;
"thou dark abysse of subtility; 'tis easier to trace a wandring swallow
through the pathless air, then to explicate the crafty wyndings of thy
love or malice."

During this time, Alcidalis in flight, comes "to the sea side, where a
ship being just ready to leave the port (for that must never be wanting
to a hero upon a ramble)," he gets on board and resumes his search for
the true Zelinda. He encounters many new adventures, and in a battle
dangerously wounds a warrior. This warrior is a woman, Zelinda herself.
The lovers recognize one another, embrace, and relate their adventures.
Alcidalis omits nothing except the episode of the duchess, and shows
himself as fond a lover as at starting: "Were I racked to ten thousand
pieces, as every part of a broken mirrour presents an entire face, in
every part of Alcidalis would appear the bright image of my adored
Zelinda." At length they are married; the couple recline at their
banquet of love, "and if no other pen raises them, they shall lye there
till Doomsday."

V.

Thus in two different ways a reaction showed itself against the
literature in fashion, and the merits of those who attempted it