Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/379

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OTHO THE GREAT.
363
Enter Ethelbert.
 Erminia.Gentle Prince, 'tis false indeed.Good morrow, holy father! I have hadYour prayers, though I look'd for you in vain.
 Ethelbert. Blessings upon you, daughter! Sure you lookToo cheerful for these foul pernicious days.Young man, you heard this virgin say 'twas false,'Tis false I say. What! can you not employYour temper elsewhere, 'mong these burly tents,But you must taunt this dove, for she hath lostThe Eagle Otho to beat off assault.Fie! Fie! But I will be her guard myself;I' the Emperor's name. I here demandHerself, and all her sisterhood. She false
 Gersa. Peace! peace, old man! I cannot think she is.
 Ethelbert. Whom I have known from her first infancy.Baptized her in the bosom of the Church,Watch'd her, as anxious husbandmen the grain,From the first shoot till the unripe mid-May,Then to the tender ear of her June days,Which, lifting sweet abroad its timid green,Is blighted by the touch of calumny;You cannot credit such a monstrous tale.
 Gersa. I cannot. Take her. Fair Erminia,I follow you to Friedburg,—is't not so?
 Erminia. Ay, so we purpose.
 Ethelbert.Daughter, do you so?How's this? I marvel! Yet you look not mad.
 Erminia. I have good news to tell you, Ethelbert.
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