The Great Legitimates themselves
Seem'd in a state of dissolution.

Th' indignant Czar-when just about
To issue a sublime Ukase,

"Whereas all light must be kept out”.
Dissolv'd to nothing in its blaze.
Next Prussia took his turn to melt,
And, while his lips illustrious felt

The influence of this southern air,

Some word, like "Constitution" - long Congeal'd in frosty silence there—

Came slowly thawing from his tongue.
While Louis, lapsing by degrees,
And sighing out a faint adieu

To truffles, salmis, toasted cheese
And smoking fondus, quickly grew,
Himself, into a fondu too;—
Or like that goodly King they make
Of sugar for a Twelfth-night cake,
When, in some urchin's mouth, alas,
It melts into a shapeless mass!

In short, I scarce could count a minute, Ere the bright dome, and all within it,

Kings, Fiddlers, Emperors, all were gone

And nothing now was seen or heard
But the bright river, rushing on,
Happy as an enfranchis'd bird,
And prouder of that natural ray,
Shining along its chainless way-
More proudly happy thus to glide
In simple grandeur to the sea,
Than when, in sparkling fetters tied,
'Twas deck'd with all that kingly pride
Could bring to light its slavery!

Such is my dream- and, I confess,
I tremble at its awfulness.

That Spanish Dance-that southern beam
But I say nothing—there's my dream-
And Madame Krudener, the she-prophet,
May make just what she pleases of it.

FABLE II.

THE LOOKING-GLASSES.

PROEM.

WHERE Kings have been by mob-elections
Rais'd to the throne, 'tis strange to see
What different and what odd perfections
Men have requir'd in Royalty.

Some, liking monarchs large and plumpy,

Have chos'n their Sovereigns by the weight;Some wish'd them tall, some thought your dumpy, Dutch-built, the true Legitimate.*

The Easterns in a Prince, 'tis said,
Prefer what's call'd a jolter-head † :
Th' Egyptians wer'n't at all partic❜lar,
So that their Kings had not red hair-
This fault not ev'n the greatest stickler
For the blood-royal well could bear.

*The Goths had a law to choose always a short, thick man for their King. - MUNSTER, Cosmog. lib. iii. p. 164.

t "In a Prince a jolter-head is invaluable.”

Oriental Field Sports.

A thousand more such illustrations

Might be adduc'd from various nations.
But, 'mong the many tales they tell us,

Touching th' acquir'd or natural right

Which some men have to rule their fellows, There's one, which I shall here recite:

FABLE.

There was a land-to name the place
Is neither now my wish nor duty-
Where reign'd a certain Royal race,
By right of their superior beauty.

What was the cut legitimate

Of these great persons' chins and noses, By right of which they rul'd the state, No history I have seen discloses.

But so it was -a settled case

Some Act of Parliament, pass'd snugly,

Had voted them a beauteous race,

And all their faithful subjects ugly.

As rank, indeed, stood high or low,
Some change it made in visual organs;
Your Peers were decent-Knights, so so-
But all your common people, gorgons!

Of course, if any knave but hinted
That the King's nose was turn'd awry,
Or that the Queen (God bless her!) squinted-
The judges doom'd that knave to die.

But rarely things like this occurr'd,

The people to their King were duteous,

And took it, on his Royal word,

That they were frights, and He was beauteous.

The cause whereof, among all classes,
Was simply this-these island elves

Had never yet seen looking-glasses,

And, therefore, did not know themselves.

Sometimes, indeed, their neighbours' faces

Might strike them as more full of reason, More fresh than those in certain places

But, Lord, the very thought was treason!