Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/379

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Enter Ethelbert.

 Erminia.⁠Gentle Prince, 'tis false indeed.
Good morrow, holy father! I have had
Your prayers, though I look'd for you in vain.

 Ethelbert. Blessings upon you, daughter! Sure you look
Too cheerful for these foul pernicious days.
Young man, you heard this virgin say 'twas false,
'Tis false I say. What! can you not employ
Your temper elsewhere, 'mong these burly tents,
But you must taunt this dove, for she hath lost
The Eagle Otho to beat off assault.
Fie! Fie! But I will be her guard myself;
I' the Emperor's name. I here demand
Herself, and all her sisterhood. She false

 Gersa. Peace! peace, old man! I cannot think she is.

 Ethelbert. Whom I have known from her first infancy.
Baptized her in the bosom of the Church,
Watch'd her, as anxious husbandmen the grain,
From the first shoot till the unripe mid-May,
Then to the tender ear of her June days,
Which, lifting sweet abroad its timid green,
Is blighted by the touch of calumny;
You cannot credit such a monstrous tale.

 Gersa. I cannot. Take her. Fair Erminia,
I follow you to Friedburg,—is't not so?

 Erminia. Ay, so we purpose.

 Ethelbert.⁠Daughter, do you so?
How's this? I marvel! Yet you look not mad.

 Erminia. I have good news to tell you, Ethelbert.