Count Julio.
149
Only two things on earth for him to love—
The gold he heaped, and the fair motherless child
Who, by his side, grew up to womanhood—
And these he worshipped, loathing all things else.
His couch was meager as a cloistered monk's;
Bianca's head was pillowed upon down;
His fare was scanty, and his garments coarse,
But she was clad like princes, and her board
Heaped with the costliest viands. From the world
He shrank abhorrent, but Bianca shone
Proudest and fairest in a brilliant court.
Her youth had been most lonely. At his side
To watch the piling of the golden heaps
He told so greedily; to play alone
In gardens where no hand had put aside
The flowers and weeds that in one tangled woof
Hung o'er the fountain's dusty bed, and crept
Round the tall porticoes: perchance to sit
Hour after hour all silent at his feet,
Twining her small arms and her baby throat
With the rare treasures that his caskets held;
Rubies, and pearls, and flashing carcanets,
The gold he heaped, and the fair motherless child
Who, by his side, grew up to womanhood—
And these he worshipped, loathing all things else.
His couch was meager as a cloistered monk's;
Bianca's head was pillowed upon down;
His fare was scanty, and his garments coarse,
But she was clad like princes, and her board
Heaped with the costliest viands. From the world
He shrank abhorrent, but Bianca shone
Proudest and fairest in a brilliant court.
Her youth had been most lonely. At his side
To watch the piling of the golden heaps
He told so greedily; to play alone
In gardens where no hand had put aside
The flowers and weeds that in one tangled woof
Hung o'er the fountain's dusty bed, and crept
Round the tall porticoes: perchance to sit
Hour after hour all silent at his feet,
Twining her small arms and her baby throat
With the rare treasures that his caskets held;
Rubies, and pearls, and flashing carcanets,
