At last said the king: “In truth a fine dream!
“Farewell, and pray learn more discretion;
“And as a somnambulist plainly thou art,
“Of thy person I’ll give the possession
“To two trusty gendarmes, whose duty ’twill be
“To see thee safe over the border—
“Farewell! I must hasten to join the parade,
“The drums are beating to order.”
And so this affecting audience came
To a most affecting conclusion.
But from that moment the monarch allow’d
No more of his children’s intrusion.[90]
22. KOBES I.
In eighteen hundred and forty-eight,
When passions men’s minds were heating,
The German nation’s parliament
At Frankfort held its meeting.
Just at this time, in the Senate-house
Appear’d the white lady ghostly,
The spectre that heralds the coming of woe,—
They call her the Housekeeper mostly.
By night they say in the Senate-house
She is wont to make her appearance,
Whenever the Germans their foolish tricks play
With extra perseverance.
I saw her myself at the selfsame time
As she roam’d in the hours of slumber
Through the silent chambers, wherein were piled
The middle ages’ old lumber.
She held the lamp and a bunch of keys
In her hands so pale and sickly;
She open’d the presses against the walls,
And the chests strew’d around her thickly.
There lie the imperial insignia all,
There lies the bull all-golden,
The sceptre, the regal apple, the crown,
And more of such fancies olden.