And kept quite a sum lying idle.
That instead of playing musical airs,
Like Colin’s foot in going up-stairs,
As the wife in the Scottish ballad declares—
It made an infernal stumping;
Whereas a member of cork, or wood,
Would be lighter and cheaper, and quite as good,
Without the unbearable thumping.
Dissensions ripened into quarrels. The countess, in her anger, destroyed her will, which act hastened the dreadful end. That night her sleep was broken;—
’Twas a stir at her pillow she felt,