CXXII. Gulleyaz, for the first time in her days, Was much embarrassed, never having met In all her life with aught save prayers and praise; And as she also risk'd her life to get Him whom she meant to tutor in love's ways Into a comfortable tête-à-tête, To lose the hour would make her quite a martyr, And they had wasted now almost a quarter. CXXIII. I also would suggest the fitting time, With us there is more law given to the case, CXXIV. Juan's was good; and might have been still better, But he had got Haidée into his head; However strange, he could not yet forget her, Which made him seem exceedingly ill-bred. Gulleyaz, who looked on him as her debtor Began to blush up to the eyes, and then CXXV. At length, in an imperial way, she laid Her brow grew black, but she would not upbraid, CXXVI. This was an awkward test, as Juan found, But he was steeled by sorrow, wrath, and pride; CXXVII. "Thou ask'st, if I can love? be this the proof I am not dazzled by this splendid roof. Whate'er thy power, and great it seems to be, Heads bow, knees bend, eyes watch around a throne, And hands obey-our hearts are still our own." CXXVIII. This was a truth to us extremely trite, Not so to her, who ne'er had heard such things; She deem'd her least command must yield delight, Earth being only made for queens and kings. If hearts lay on the left side or the right She hardly knew, to such perfection brings Legitimacy its born votaries, when Aware of their due royal rights o'er men. CANTO V.-D CXXIX. Besides, as has been said, she was so fair And also, as may be presumed, she laid She thought hers gave a double “right divine,” CXXX. Remember, or (if you cannot) imagine, Ye! who have kept your chastity when young, While some more desperate dowager has been waging Love with you, and been in the dog-days stung By your refusal, recollect her raging! Or recollect all that was said or sung On such a subject; then suppose the face Of a young downright beauty in this case. CXXXI. Suppose, but you already have supposed To educate-ye youth of Europe-you by! CXXXII. A tigress robbed of young, a lioness, Of ladies who cannot have their own way; But though iny turn will not be served with less, CXXXIII. The love of offspring's nature's general law, From tigresses and cubs to ducks and ducklings; There's nothing whet's the beak or arms the claw Like an invasion of their babes and sucklings; And all who have seen a human nursery, saw [lings: How mothers love their children's squalls and chuckAnd this strong extreme effect (to tire no longer Your patience) shows the cause must still be stronger. CXXXIV. If I said fire flashed from Gulleyaz' eyes, 'Twere nothing-for her eyes flash'd always fire; Or said her cheeks assumed the deepest dyes, ́ I should but bring disgrace upon the dyer, So supernatural was her passion's rise: For ne'er till now she knew a checked desire: Even ye who know what a checked woman is (Enough, God knows!) would much fall short of this. CXXXV. Her rage was but a minute's, and 'twas well- Like ocean warring 'gainst a rocky isle; CXXXVI. A vulgar tempest 'twere to a Typhoon To match a common fury with her rage, And yet she did not want to reach the moon, Like moderate Hotspur on the immortal page; Her anger pitched into a lower tune, Perhaps the fault of her soft sex and ageHer wish was but to "kill, kill, kill," like Lear's, And then her thirst of blood was quench'd in tears. CXXXVII. A storm it raged, and like the storm it passsed, As water through an unexpected leak, CXXXVIII. It teaches them that they are flesh and blood, That urns and pipkins are but fragile brothers, CXXXIX. Her first thought was to cut off Juan's head; Her fourth, to rally him into repentance; |