"Bravely she shone—and shone the more,
As she sailed through the crowd of squalid and poor,
Thief, beggar, and tatterdemalion;
Led by the Count, with his sloe-black eyes,
Bright with triumph, and some surprise,
Like Anson, in making sure of his prize,
The famous Mexican galleon.
* * * * *
"Six 'Handsome Fortunes,' all in white,
Came to help the marriage rite,
And rehearse their own hymeneals;
And then the bright procession to close,
They were followed by just as many beaux—
Quite fine enough for ideals.
"And how did the bride perform her part?
Like any bride who is cold at heart,
Mere snow with the ice's glitter;
What but a life of winter for her?
Bright but chilly, alive without stir,
So splendidly comfortless, just like a fir
When the frost is severe and bitter.
"Yet wedlock's an awful thing!
'Tis something like that feat in the ring
Which requires good nerve to do it,
When one of a 'grand equestrian troop'
Makes a jump at a gilded hoop,
Not certain at all
Of what may befall
After his getting through it.
"Such were the future of man and wife,
Whose bale or bliss to the end of life
A few short words were to settle:
Wilt thou have this woman?
I will—and then,
Wilt thou have this man?
I will, and Amen——
And those two were one flesh in the angels' ken,
Except one leg—that was metal."
The Wedding—"Wilt thou have this Woman?"
Here we have the Count in profile, only more agreeable because the view affords less of his villainous face.