Then a servitor, bearing
A big candle, flaring
Up like mad, and creating a vast cloud of vapour,
Or smoke, (which affair was a “penitent taper,”)
On a silver “Lavabo,” a word which they say,
In middle-age Latin, means simply a tray;
And after this penitent candle there came
Our penitent heroine, looking the same,
And feeling—however, I’ll leave you to guess
How the poor thing would feel in so cruel a mess.