This evening, however, Emilius counted on him with some certainty, as he had promised faithfully to spend it at home, to learn what it was that for some weeks past had been weighing on his friend's spirits. Emilius spent the interval in composing the following verses:
Spring-time, it is blithe and gay When the nightingale sits on the hawthorn-spray, And every leaf and every flower Quivers with joy at the music's power.
The play of the gentle evening air In the golden moonlight is passing fair, As over the tree-tops it whispering sweeps And its wings in the linden's fragrance steeps.
The glance of the new-blown rose is bright As the gleaming of stars on a summer's night, Like a bride for the altar the garden arraying, And love in a thousand flowerets playing.
Yet brighter, and fairer, and lovelier far Is the pale little lamplet's trembling star Which yonder my love in her chamber shews As she lingers at night, to her couch ere she goes.
Her delicate tresses I watch her unbind, From around her fair temples the rose-wreath unwind; Her exquisite form to my rapturous gaze With each motion the tightening nightdress betrays.
And oh, when the lute in her fingers she takes, And stirr'd at her bidding sweet music awakes, With a thrill at her exquisite touch, from the strings The spirit of melody laughingly springs.
She sends out a song to recall him again, The wandering rogue--but she sends it in vain; For he flies to my heart with a shout of loud laughter For shelter; and there the pursuer flies after.
Oh, out with thee, mischievous villains, away! But together they bar themselves in as they say, "Till this shall be broken we budge not from here, And the Love-god we'll teach thee to know and to fear."
Emilius stood up impatiently. It was now dark, and Roderick was not come; he was craving to tell him of his love for an unknown beauty who lived opposite to them, and kept him all day watching at the window, and all night waking in his bed. A sound of footsteps on the stairs. The door opened without any one knocking, and in came two gay-looking figures with very ugly masks on their faces; one dressed as a Turk, in a long gown of blue and red; the other as a Spaniard, in a doublet of red and light yellow, and a plume of feathers in his cap. Emilius was getting impatient, when the Turk took off his mask, and shewed the well-known, broad, merry face of Roderick.