The ensigns and lieutenants are
Wise in their generation;
They always think the present time
The weightiest in creation.
69.
From beauteous lips compell’d to part, and carried
Away from beauteous arms fast clasp’d around me,
Yet one more day I gladly would have tarried,
When came the post-boy with his steeds, and found me.
Child, this is very life, an endless wailing,
An endless farewell-taking, endless parting;
Is then thy heart to clasp mine unavailing?
Could not thine eye retain me, e’en at starting?
70.
We travelled alone in the gloomy
Post-chaise the whole of the night;
Each lean’d on the other’s bosom,
And jested with hearts so light.
When morning dawn’d upon us,
My child, how we did stare,
For the blind passenger,[24] Amor,
Was sitting between us there!
71.
Heaven knows where the haughty hussy
May have will’d to pitch her tent;
Swearing, with the rain fast falling,
All the city through I went.
From one tavern to another
Ran I swiftly in the rain,
And to every surly waiter
Did I turn myself in vain.