And water clear, her thirst to slake,

She chose to sip from the cool lake:

And, when she sung herself to rest,

’Twas in what hedge she lik’d the best:

And thus, because she was not free,

Hating the chain of slavery,

She rather added link to link:

—Just so men reach misfortune’s brink.

At length, revolving on her state,

She cries, “I might have met worse fate,