Or book or lute; but hastily we past,
And up a flight of stairs into the hall.

There at a board by tome and paper sat,

With two tame leopards crouch'd beside her throne,

All beauty compass'd in a female form,

The Princess; liker to the inhabitant

Of some clear planet close upon the Sun,

Than our man's earth: such eyes were in her head,
And so much grace and power, breathing down
From over her arch'd brows, with every turn
Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands,
And to her feet. She rose her height, and said:

'We give you welcome: not without redound Of fame and profit unto yourselves ye come, The first-fruits of the stranger: aftertime, And that full voice which circles round the grave,

Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me.

What are the ladies of your land so tall?'

'We of the court,' said Cyril.

From the court,'

She answer'd, 'then ye know the Prince?' and he:

'The climax of his age: as tho' there were

One rose in all the world, your Highness that,
He worships your ideal' and she replied:
'We did not think in our own hall to hear
This barren verbiage, current among men,
Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment.
We think not of him: when we set our hand
To this great work, we purposed with ourselves
Never to wed. You likewise will do well,
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling

that so,

The tricks, which make us toys of men,
Some future time, if so indeed you will,

You may with those self-styled our lords ally
Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale.'

At those high words, we, conscious of ourselves, Perused the matting; then an officer

Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these :

Not for three years to correspond with home;
Not for three years to cross the liberties;

Not for three years to speak with any men;

And many more, which hastily subscribed,

We enter'd on the boards: and 'Now,' she cried,

'Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, our hall!

Our statues ! not of those that men desire,

Sleek Odalisques, or oracles of mode,

Nor stunted squaws of West or East; but she
That taught the Sabine how to rule, and she

The foundress of the Babylonian wall,

The Carian Artemisia strong in war,

The Rhodope that built the pyramid,

Clelia, Cornelia, with the Palmyrene
That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows
Of Agrippina. Leave us you may go:
To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue

The fresh arrivals of the week before;

For they press in from all the provinces,
And fill the hive.'

So saying, she bow'd and waved

Dismissal back again we crost the court

:

To Lady Psyche's: as we enter'd in,

There sat along the forms, like morning doves

That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch,

A patient range of pupils; she herself
Erect behind a desk of satin-wood,

A quick brunette, well-moulded, falcon-eyed,
And on the hither side, or so she look'd,
Of twenty summers. At her left, a child,
In shining draperies, headed like a star,
Her maiden babe, a double April old,
Aglaïa slept. We sat the Lady glanced:
Then Florian, but no livelier than the dame
That whisper'd 'Asses' ears' among the sedge,
'My sister.' 'Comely too by all that's fair,'
Said Cyril. O hush, hush!' and she began:

'This world was once a fluid haze of light, Till toward the centre set the starry tides

And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast

The planets then the monster, then the man ;

Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins,

Raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate;

As yet we find in barbarous isles, and here

Among the lowest.'

Thereupon she took

A bird's-eye-view of all the ungracious past;

Glanced at the legendary Amazon

As emblematic of a nobler age;

Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those

That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo;

Ran down the Persian, Grecian, Roman lines
Of empire, and the woman's state in each,
How far from just; till warming with her theme,
She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique
And little-footed China, touch'd on Mahomet
With much contempt, and came to chivalry:
When some respect, however slight, was paid