THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS.

KING FRANCIS was a hearty king, and lov'd a royal sport,

And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the

court;

The nobles fill'd the benches, and the ladies in their pride,

And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he sigh'd:

And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show,

Valour and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.

Ramp'd and roar'd the lions, with horrid laughing jaws;

They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws;

With wallowing might and stifled roar they roll'd on one another,

Till all the pit with sand and mane was in a thunderous smother;

The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air;

Said Francis then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there."

De Lorge's love o'erheard the King, a beauteous lively dame

With smiling lips and sharp bright eyes, which alway seem'd the same;

She thought, the Count my lover is brave as brave can be;

He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me;

King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;

I'll drop my glove to prove his love; great glory will be mine.

She dropp'd her glove to prove his love, then look'd at him and smil'd;

He bow'd, and in a moment leap'd among the lions wild:

The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regain'd the place,

Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.

By God!" said Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat ;

"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."*

"Lions' Street took its name from the building and courts wherein were kept the King's great and small lions. One day, whilst Francis the First amused himself with looking at a combat between his lions, a lady having let her glove drop, said to De Lorges, If you would have me believe that you love me as much as you swear you do, go and recover my glove.' De Lorges went down, took up the glove in the midst of these furious animals, returned, and threw it in the lady's face; and notwithstanding all the advances she made, and all the arts she used, would never see her afterwards."

Historical Essays upon Paris, translated from the French of M. de Saint Foix. (Lond. 1767.) Vol. i. p. 149. St. Foix quotes from Brantôme.

THE PANTHER.

THE panther leap'd to the front of his lair,
And stood with a foot up, and snuff'd the air;
He quiver'd his tongue from his panting mouth,
And look'd with a yearning towards the south;
For he scented afar in the coming breeze
News of the gums and their blossoming trees;
And out of Armenia that same day

He and his race come bounding away.
Over the mountains and down to the plains
Like Bacchus's panthers with wine in their veins,
They came where the woods wept odorous rains
And there, with a quivering, every beast
Fell to his old Pamphylian feast.

The people who liv'd not far away,
Heard the roaring on that same day;

And they said, as they lay in their carpeted rooms,
The panthers are come, and are drinking the gums:
And some of them going with swords and spears
To gather their share of the rich round tears,
The panther I spoke of follow'd them back;
And dumbly they let him tread close in the track,
And lured him after them into the town;
And then they let the portcullis down,
And took the panther, which happened to be
The largest was seen in all Pamphily.

By every one there was the panther admir'd,
So fine was his shape and so sleekly attir'd,
And such an air, both princely and swift,
He had, when giving a sudden lift

To his mighty paw, he'd turn at a sound,
And so stand panting and looking around,
As if he attended a monarch crown'd.
And truly, they wonder'd the more to behold
About his neck a collar of gold,

On which was written, in characters broad,
"Arsaces the king to the Nysian God."
So they tied to the collar a golden chain,
Which made the panther a captive again,
And by degrees he grew fearful and still,
As if he had lost his lordly will.

But now came the spring, when free-born love
Calls up nature in forest and grove,
And makes each thing leap forth, and be
Loving, and lovely, and blithe as he.

The panther he felt the thrill of the air,
And he gave a leap up, like that at his lair;
He felt the sharp sweetness more strengthen his
veins,

Ten times than ever the spicy rains,

And ere they're aware, he has burst his chains:
He has burst his chains, and ah, ha! he's gone,
And the links and the gazers are left alone,
And off to the mountains the panther's flown.

Now what made the panther a prisoner be? Lo! 'twas the spices and luxury. And what set that lordly panther free? 'Twas Love!-'twas Love!-'twas no one but he.*

* "What is said of that Taurus which is so called by us, extending beyond Armenia, (though this has been called in question), is now made apparent from the panthers, which I know have been taken in the spice-bearing part of Pamphylia; for they, delighting in odours, which they scent at a great distance, quit Armenia, and cross the mountains in search of the tears of the storax, at the time when the wind blows from that quarter, and the trees distil their gums. It is said that a panther

THE FEAST OF THE POETS.

T'OTHER day, as Apollo sat pitching his darts Through the clouds of November by fits and by starts,

He began to consider how long it had been,

Since the bards of Old England a session had seen.
"I think," said the God, recollecting, (and then
He fell twiddling a sunbeam, as I may my pen,)
"I think-let me see-yes, it is, I declare,
As long ago now as that Buckingham there : *
And yet I can't see why I've been so remiss,
Unless it may be-and it certainly is, lime,
That since Dryden's fine verses, and Milton's sub-
I have fairly been sick of their sing-song and rhyme.
There was Collins, 'tis true, had a good deal to say;
But the dog had no industry, neither had Gray:
And Thomson, though dear to my heart, was too
florid

To make the world see that their own taste was horrid.

was once taken in Pamphylia, with a gold chain about its neck, on which was inscribed, in Armenian letters, "Arsaces the king to the Nysæan God." Arsaces was then king of Armenia, who is supposed to have given it its liberty on account of its magnitude, and in honour of Bacchus, who, amongst the Indians, is called Nisius, from Nysa, one of their towns: this, however, is an appellation which he bears among all the oriental nations. This panther became subject to man, and grew so tame, that it was patted and caressed by every one. But on the approach of spring, a season when panthers become susceptible of love, it felt the general passion, and rushed with fury into the mountains in quest of a mate, with the gold chain about its neck."Life of Apollonius of Tyana, p. 68.

* Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, wrote the last Session of the Poets. Others were written by Suckling and Rochester.