D'Adélaïde
Fuyez le dangereux accueil:
Tous les enchantemens d'Armide
Sont moins à craindre qu'un coup d'œil
D'Adélaïde.
D'Adélaïde
Quand l'Amour eut formé les traits,
Ma fois, dit-il, la cour de Gnide
N'a rien de pareil aux attraits
D'Adélaïde.
Adélaïde,
Lui dit-il, ne nous quittons pas:
Je suis aveugle, sois mon guide;
Je suivrai partout pas à pas
Adélaïde.
TRANSLATION.
Adelaide
Was surely form'd all hearts to move,
And more than Ovid we can prove
By speaking eyes, the art of love
In Adelaide.
Than Adelaide
No softer thraldom could we meet:
Alcides' self would think it sweet,
To spin his task out at the feet
Of Adelaide.
From Adelaide
And all her dang'rous beauties fly;—
Armida's charms and witchery
Were far less fatal than the eye
Of Adelaide.
Of Adelaide
When Cupid first the features fram'd,
"In Cnidus' court," he loud proclaim'd,
"Not one for beauty shall be fam'd
Like Adelaide."
"O Adelaide!"
The sightless boy enraptur'd cried,
"Alas, I'm blind! Be thou my guide;
From henceforth I'll ne'er leave the side
Of Adelaide."
Miss Wildenheim quickly recollected, that these lines were written in a fine edition of Klopstock's works Colonel Desmond had given her, as a gage d'amitié, the last day she had seen him at Vienna; and when Miss Nevil turned to trace the resemblance she perceived in the drawing—the blush, the smile, the attitude, the graceful form, struck her so forcibly, that she exclaimed, "It is yourself, Miss Wildenheim; I thought it was the image of you, the instant I saw it." Melicent, with intuitive propriety, sought to relieve Adelaide's embarrassment, and said, "Here's a far more beautiful figure; this, Miss Webberly, is my last production—a charming Paul and Virginia, I assure you. Do admire Paul's leg, it is thicker than the tree he is sitting under:—I wonder he doesn't kick Virginia, she squints so abominably."