cool and scented bower.
The white leaf matched her lily skin, the red his bounding heart.
For she was beauty's spotless queen, he valor's counterpart.
For when the Moor approached her he scarcely raised his eye,
Dazed by the expectation that she had raised so high.
Celinda with a trembling blush came forth and grasped his hand;
They talked of love like travellers lost in a foreign land.
Then said the Moor, "Why give me now love's sweetest paths to trace,
Who in thy absence only live on memories of thy face?
If thou should speak of Xerez," he said with kindling eye,
"Now take my lance, like Zaida's spouse this moment let me die,
And may I some day find thee in a rival's arms at rest,
And he by all thy arts of love be tenderly caressed;
Unless the Moor whose slander made me odious in thy eyes
In caitiff fraud and treachery abuse thine ear with lies."
The lady smiled, her heart was light, she felt a rapture new;
And like each flower that filled their bower the love between them grew,
For little takes it to revive the love that is but true;
And aided by his lady's hand he hastes her gems to don,
And on his courser's back he flings a rich caparison,
A head-stall framed of purple web and studded o'er with gold;
And purple plumes and ribbons and gems of price untold;
He clasped the lady to his heart, he whispered words of cheer,
And then took horse to Gelva to join the tilting there.

CALL TO ARMS

What time the sun in ocean sank, with myriad colors fair,
And jewels of a thousand hues tinted the clouds of air,
Brave Gazul at Acala, with all his host, drew rein--
They were four hundred noblemen, the stoutest hearts in Spain--
And scarcely had he reached the town when the command was given:
"Now let your shots, your cross-bows, sound to the vault of heaven!
Let kettle-drums and trumpets and clarions blend their strain;
Zulema, Tunis' King, now lands upon the coast of Spain,
And with him ride, in arms allied, Marbello and his train."
And though at night he entered no torch or lamp he hath,
For glorious Celinda is the sun upon his path;
And as he enters in the town at once the word is given:
"Now let your shots, your cross-bows, sound to the vault of heaven!
Let kettle-drums and trumpets and clarions blend their strain;
Zulema, Tunis' King, now lands upon the coast of Spain,
And with him ride, in arms allied, Marbello and his train."
Gazul di