For his chiefs and his captains bowed low at his word,

And the feast was right royal that burden’d the board.

Lo! light as a star thro’ a gathered cloud stealing,

What spirit glanced in ’mid the guard at the door?

Their stern bands divide, a fair figure revealing;

She bounds, in her beauty, the dim threshold o’er.

Her dark eyes are lovely with tenderest truth;

The bloom on her cheek is the blossom of youth;

And the smile, that steals thro’ it, is rich with the ray

Of a heart full of love and of innocent play.