“He was the bird of Venus, {39b} goddess of beauty.  He flew down (I speak as a poet, and not in my quality of knight and Christian) with half the stars of heaven upon his tail; and his long, blue neck doth verily appear a dainty slice out of the solid sky.”

Sir Silas smote me with his elbow, and said in my ear, —

“He wanteth not this stuffing; he beats a pheasant out of the kitchen, to my mind, take him only at the pheasant’s size, and don’t (upon your life) overdo him.

“Never be cast down in spirit, nor take it too ’grievously to heart, if the colour be a suspicion of the pinkish,—­no sign of rawness in that; none whatever.  It is as becoming to him as to the salmon; it is as natural to your pea-chick in his best cookery, as it is to the finest October morning,—­moist underfoot, when partridge’s and puss’s and renard’s scent lies sweetly.”

Willie Shakspeare, in the mean time, lifted up his hands above his ears half a cubit, and taking breath again, said, audibly, although he willed it to be said unto himself alone, —

“O that knights could deign to be our teachers!  Methinks I should briefly spring up into heaven, through the very chink out of which the peacock took his neck.”

Master Silas, who like myself and the worshipful knight, did overhear him, said angrily, —

“To spring up into heaven, my lad, it would be as well to have at least one foot upon the ground to make the spring withal.  I doubt whether we shall leave thee this vantage.”

“Nay, nay! thou art hard upon him, Silas,” said the knight.

I was turning over the other papers taken from the pocket of the culprit on his apprehension, and had fixed my eyes on one, when Sir Thomas caught them thus occupied, and exclaimed, —

" Mercy upon us! have we more?”

“Your patience, worshipful sir!” said I; “must I forward?”

“Yea, yea,” quoth he, resignedly, “we must go through; we are pilgrims in this life.”

Then did I read, in a clear voice, the contents of paper the second, being as followeth:-

“The maid’s lament.

“I loved him not; and yet, now he is gone,
   I feel I am alone. 
I check’d him while he spoke; yet, could he speak,
   Alas!  I would not check. 
For reasons not to love him once I sought,
   And wearied all my thought
To vex myself and him:  I now would give
   My love could he but live
Who lately lived for me, and when he found
   ’T was vain, in holy ground
He hid his face amid the shades of death! 
   I waste for him my breath
Who wasted his for me! but mine returns,
   And this loin bosom burns
With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,
   And waking me to weep
Tears that had melted his soft heart.  For years
   Wept he as bitter tears! 
Merciful god! such was his latest prayer,
   these may she never share! 
Quieter is his breath, his breast more cold,
   Than daisies in the mould,
Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate,
   His name and life’s brief date. 
Pray for him, gentle souls, whoe’er you be,
   And, oh! pray too for me!”