XXIX
" `Below departing, you the test shall try,
And, to my thinking, now shall you drink clean;
For clean as yet I think your consort, I:
The event however shall by you be seen.
Yet will I warrant not your bosom dry,
Should you repeat the proof; for if, between
The cup and lip, the liquor be not shed,
You are the happiest wight that ever wed.'
XXX
"The offer I accept, the vase to me
Is given, and trial made with full success;
For hitherto (as hoped) confirmed I see
My gentle consort's worth and faithfulness.
'Leave her awhile (Melissa said), and be
A month or twain a truant, more or less:
Then homeward wend; again the goblet fill;
And prove if you the beverage drink or spill.'
XXXI
"I thought it hard to leave my consort's side;
Not as so much about her truth in pain,
As that I could nor for two days abide,
Nay, not an hour without her could remain.
`— You in another way (Melissa cried)
Guided by me, the truth shall ascertain;
Voice, vesture shall you change; and to her sight
Present yourself, disguised like other wight.'
XXXII
"Sir, a fair city nigh at hand, defends
Twixt fierce and threatening horns the foaming Po;
Whose jurisdiction to the shore extends,
Where the sea's briny waters come and go:
This yields in ancientry, but well contends
With neighbouring towns in rich and gorgeous show:
A Trojan remnant its foundations placed,
Which scaped from Attila's destructive waste.
XXXIII
"A rich, a youthful, and a handsome knight
Bridles this city with his sovereign sway;
Who, following a lost falcon in its flight,
Entering by chance my dwelling on a day,
Beheld my wife, who pleased him so at sight,
He bore her impress in his heart away;
Nor ceased to practise on her, with intent
To incline the matron to his evil bent.
XXXIV
"So often she repels the cavalier
That finally his courtship is foregone;
But her fair image graved by Love will ne'er
Be razed from memory; me Melissa won
(So well she soothed and flattered) of that peer
The face and figure to the sight to don;
And changed me — nor well how can I declare —
In voice and visage and in eyes and hair.
XXXV
"I, having to my lady made a show
As eastward bound and gone, — like him that wooed,
Her rich and youthful lover, altered so,
His semblance, attended by Melissa, go,
Into a page upon her side transmewed;
Who the most costly jewels with her bore
E'er brought form Ind, or Erithraean shore.
XXXVI
"I enter safely, that my palace knew,
And with me wends Melissa; and there I
So wholly at her ease Madonna view,
No woman or attendant squire is by.
To her with suppliant prayer forthwith I sue,
And next those goads to evil deed apply;
Show emerald, ruby, diamond, that might serve;
To make the firmest heart from honour swerve;
XXXVII
"And I declare to her the gift is small
To that, which she may hope to make her own;
Then of the vantage speak, that from his hall
Her husband at the present time is gone;
And I how long it was to her recall,
Since, as she knew, to her my love was shown;
And that my loving with such faith, in the end
Might worthily to some reward pretend.
XXXVIII
"At first she was somedeal disturbed; became
Like scarlet; nor would listen to my say;
But seeing those bright jewels flash like flame,
Her stubborn heart was softened, and gave way;
And in brief speech and feeble said the dame
What to remember takes my life away:
She with my wishes, said, she would comply,
If sure to be unseen of watchful eye.