CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

THE GLOVE
Amid the Court's scoffing and merriment,­
As if from no pleasing experiment
She rose, yet of pain not much heedful
So long as the process was needful­
As if she had tried in a crucible,
To what" speeches like gold" were reducible,
And, finding the finest prove copper,
Felt the smoke in her face was but proper;
To know what she had not to trust to,
W as worth all the ashes, and dust too.
She went out 'mid hooting and laughter;
Clement Marot stayed; I followed after,
And asked, as a grace, what it all meant­
If she wished not the rash deed's recalment ?
" For I "-so I spoke-" am a Poet:
.. Human nature,-behoves that I know it 1 "
She told me, " Too long had I heard
" Of the deed proved alone by the word:
" For my love,-what De Lorge would not dare 1
.. 'With my scorn-what De Lorge could compare I
" And the endless descriptions of death
" He would brave when my lip formed a breath.
" I must reckon as braved, or, of course,
" Doubt his word-and moreover, perforce,
.. For such gifts as no lady could spurn,
" Must offer my love in return.
" When I looked on your lion, it brought
" All the dangers at once to my thought,
" Encountered by all sorts of men,
.. Before he was lodged in his den,-
" From the poor slave whose club or bare hands
" Dug the trap, set the snare on the sands,
" With no King and no Court to applaud,
" By no shame, should he shrink, overawed,
" Yet to capture the creature made shift,
" That his rude boys might laugh at the gift,
.. To the page who last leaped o'er the fence
" Of the pit, on no greater pretence
" Than to get back the bonnet he dropped,
" Lest his pay for a week should be stopped­
" So, wiser I judged it to make
.. One trial what' death for my sake'
" Really meant, while the power was yet mine,
" Than to wait until time should define
" Such a phase not so simply as I,
" Who took it to mean just' to die.'
" The blow a glove gives is but weak-
" Does the mark yet discolour my cheek?
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