In this southern clime he'd ripened
Since he left, a hopeless suitor,
The old castle in the Rhine-land.
Life's wild whirlpool, since that morning,
Had well tossed him hither thither.
Willingly I would relate here,
How he went to many countries;
How o'er land and sea he travelled;
How he with the Knights of Malta
Cruised against the Turkish corsairs;