Hawthorn brightly blossoming,
Thou dost fling
Verdant shadows down the river;
Thou art clad from top to roots
With long shoots
On which graceful leaflets quiver.
Here the poetic nightingale
Ne'er doth fail—
Having sung his love to capture—
To repair to consecrate,
'Neath thy verdure, hours of rapture.
Therefore live, O Hawthorn fair,
Live fore'er!
May no thunder bolt dare smite thee!
May no axe or cruel blast
Overcast!
May the tooth of time....

[6] Raffinés or raffiné d'honneur was a term applied in the 16th century to men sensitively punctilious and ready to draw their swords at the slightest provocation.—N.H.D.

[7] The original has à l'aide d'une promenade.

[8]

"Who are standing by my litter?"
"Two pages and an outrider."
"Good! They are barbarians! Tell me, La Mole, whom did you find in your room?"
"Duke François."
"Doing what?"
"I do not know."
"With whom?"
"With a stranger."

[9] "I am alone; enter, my dear."

[10] She was in the habit of carrying a large farthingale, containing pockets, in each of which she put a gold box in which was the heart of one of her dead lovers; for she was careful as they died to have their hearts embalmed. This farthingale hung every night from a hook which was secured by a padlock behind the headboard of her bed. (Tallemant Des Réaux, History of Marguerite of Valois.)

[11]

Fair duchess, your dear eyes
Are emerald skies,
Half hid 'neath cloud-lids white,
Whence fiercer lightning flies,
Launched forth for our surprise,
Than could arise
From twenty Joves in furious might.

[12] Charles IX. had married Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian.