And guest became with trusty Joseph;—free from bar.
They had been friends before, in childhood’s artless days;
Had leant their elbows on one cushion, in their ways.
His brethren’s envy and wrong-dealing touched upon,
Said Joseph: “’Twas a chain. It bound a lion. ‘Non!10
Disgrace affects not lions, if with chains they’re bound.
With God’s decree I quarrel not;—it’s always sound.
A lion with a chain around his lordly neck,
Is still the lord of them who forged the chain as check.”
The friend asked: “How wert, in the well, the prison, cast?”