He was a Turk, the colour of mahogany;

And Laura saw him, and at first was glad, Because the Turks so much admire philogyny, Although their usage of their wives is sad; 'Tis said they use no better than a dog any Poor woman, whom they purchase like a pad ;

LXV.

Now Laura moves along the joyous crowd, Siniles in her eyes, and simpers on her lips; To some she whispers, others speaks aloud;

To some she curtsies, and to some she dips, Complains of warmth, and this complaint avow'd,

Her lover brings the lemonade, she sips; She then surveys, condemns, but pities still Her dearest friends for being dress'd so ill.

LXVI.

One has false curls, another too much paint, A third-where did she buy that frightful turban?

A fourth's so pale, she fears she's going to faint, A fifth looks vulgar, dowdyish, and suburban,

'em,

Four wives by law, and concubines ad libitum.

LXXI.

They lock them up, and veil, and guard them daily,

They scarcely can behold their male relations, So that their moments do not pass so gaily

As is supposed the case with northern nations; Confinement, too, must make them look quite palely;

And as the Turks abhor long conversations, Their days are either pass'd in doing nothing, Or bathing, nursing, making love, and clothing.

LXXII.

They cannot read, and so don't lisp in criticism; Nor write, and so they don't affect the muse;

11.

Such was the hazard of the die;
The wounded Charles was taught to fly
By day and night, through field and flood,
Stain'd with his own and subjects' blood;
For thousands fell that flight to aid:
And not a voice was heard t' upbraid
Ambition in his humbled hour,

When truth had nought to dread from power.

His horse was slain, and Gieta gave

His own and died the Russians' slave.
This too sinks after many a league
Of well-sustain'd, but vain fatigue;
And in the depth of forests, darkling
The watch-fires in the distance sparkling-
The beacons of surrounding foes-
A king must lay his limbs at length.

Are these the laurels and repose

For which the nations strain their strength?
They laid him by a savage tree,
In outworn nature's agony;

His wounds were stiff-his limbs were stark-
The heavy hour was chill and dark;
The fever in his blood forbade
A transient slumber's fitful aid:
And thus it was; but yet through all,
Kinglike the monarch bore his fall,
And made, in this extreme of ill,
His pangs the vassals of his will:
All silent and subdued were they,
As once the nations round him lay.

III.

A band of chiefs !-alas, how few,
Since but the fleeting of a day
Had thinn'd it; but this wreck was true
And chivalrous: upon the clay
Each sate him down, all sad and mute,
Beside his monarch and his steed,
For danger levels man and brute,

And all are fellows in their need.
Among the rest, Mazeppa made
His pillow in an old oak's shade-
Himself as rough, and scarce less old,
The Ukraine's Hetman, calm and bold;
But first, outspent with this long course,
The Cossack prince rubb'd down his horse,
And made for him a leafy bed,

And smooth'd his fetlocks and his mane, And slack'd his girth, and stripp'd his And joy'd to see how well he fed ; For until now he had the dread His wearied courser might refuse

[rein,

To browse beneath the midnight dews:
But he was hardy as his lord,
And little cared for bed and board;
But spirited and docile too,
Whate'er was to be done, would do.
Shaggy and swift, and strong of limb,
All Tartar-like he carried him;
Obey'd his voice, and came at call,
And knew him in the midst of all:

Though thousands were around-and Night,
Without a star, pursued her flight-
That steed from sunset until dawn
His chief would follow like a fawn.

IV.

This done, Mazeppa spread his cloak
And laid his lance beneath his oak,
Felt if his arms in order good

The long day's march had well withstood-
If still the powder fill'd the pan,

And flints unloosen'd kept their lockHis sabre's hilt and scabbard felt, And whether they had chafed his belt ;And next the venerable man, From out his havresack and can,

Prepared and spread his slender stock;
And to the monarch and his men
The whole or portion offer'd then,
With far less of inquietude
Than courtiers at a banquet would.
And Charles of this his slender share
With smiles partook a moment there,
To force of cheer a greater show,

And seem above both wounds and woe ;-
And then he said-'Of all our band,
Though firm of heart and strong of hand,
In skirmish, march, or forage, none
Can less have said or more have done
Than thee, Mazeppa! On the earth
So fit a pair had never birth,
Since Alexander's days till now,
As thy Bucephalus and thou;

All Scythia's fame to thine should yield,
For pricking on o'er flood and field.'
Mazeppa answer'd, Ill betide

The school wherein I learn'd to ride!' [so
Quoth Charles,-'Old Hetman, wherefore
Since thou hast learn'd the art so well?'
Mazeppa said-''Twere long to tell;
And we have many a league to go,
With every now and then a blow,
And ten to one at least the foe,
Before our steeds may graze at ease
Beyond the swift Borysthenes :
And, sire, your limbs have need of rest,
And I will be the sentinel

Of this your troop. But I request,'
Said Sweden's monarch, thou wilt tell
This tale of thine, and I may reap,
Perchance, from this the boon of sleep;
For at this moment from my eyes
The hope of present slumber flies.'

'Well, sire, with such a hope I'll track
My seventy years of memory back:
I think 'twas in my twentieth spring,-
Ay, 'twas-when Casimir was king-
John Casimir,-I was his page
Six summers in my earlier age:
A learned monarch, faith! was he,
And most unlike your Majesty :
He made no wars, and did not gain
New realms to lose them back again;