He ended frowning, and the noisy rout
Each to his several cell went puffing out.
But Zephyr, far more courteous than the rest,
To his own bower convey'd the royal guest;
There, on a bed of roses neatly laid,
Beneath the fragrance of a myrtle shade,
His limbs to needful rest the Prince applied,
His sweet companion slumbering by his side.

BOOK II.

No sooner in her silver chariot rose

The ruddy Morn, than, sated with

repose, The Prince address'd his host; the God awoke, And leaping from his couch, thus kindly spoke:

"This early call, my lord, that chides my stay,

Requires my thanks, and I with joy obey.

"Like you, I long to reach the blissful coast,

"Hate the slow night, and mourn the moments lost. "The bright Rosinda, loveliest of the fair

"That crowd the Princess' court, demands my care;

"E'en now with fears and jealousies o'erborn

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Upbraids, and calls me cruel and forsworn.

"What sweet rewards on all my toils attend,

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Serving at once my

mistress and my friend!

"Just to my love and to my duty too, "Well paid in her, well pleased in pleasing you.' This said, he led him to the cavern gate,

And clasp'd him in his arms, and poised his weight; Then, balancing his body here and there,

Stretch'd forth his agile wings, and launch'd in air;
Swift as the fiery meteor from on high

Shoots to its goal, and gleams athwart the sky.
Here with quick fan his lab'ring pinions play;
There glide at ease along the liquid way :
Now lightly skim the plain with even flight;
Now proudly soar above the mountain's height.

Spiteful Detraction, whose envenom'd hate Sports with the sufferings of the good and great, Spares not our Prince, but with opprobrious sneer Arraigns him of the heinous sin of fear;

That he, so tried in arms, whose very name
Infused a secret panic where it came,

E'en he, as high above the clouds he flew,
And spied the mountains less'ning to the view,
Nought round him but the wide expanded air,
Helpless, abandon'd to a stripling's care,
Struck with the rapid whirl, and dreadful height,
Confess'd some faint alarm, some little fright.

way,

The friendly God, who instantly divined The terrors that possess'd his fellow's mind, To calm his troubled thoughts, and cheat the Described the nations that beneath them lay, The name, the climate, and the soil's increase, Their arms in war, their government in peace; Shew'd their domestic arts, their foreign trade, What interest they pursued, what leagues they made. The sweet discourse so charm'd Porsenna's ear, That, lost in joy, he had no time for fear.

From Scandinavia's cold inclement waste
O'er wide Germania's various realms they pass'd,
And now on Albion's fields suspend their toil,
And hover for awhile, and bless the soil.

O'er the gay scene the Prince delighted hung,
And gazed in rapture, and forgot his tongue;
Till bursting forth at length :-" Behold,” cried he,
"The promised isle, the land I long'd to see;

"Those plains, those vales, and fruitful hills, declare

My queen, my charmer must inhabit there.”____

Thus raved the Monarch, and the gentle Guide,
Pleased with his error, thus in smiles replied.

"I must applaud, my lord, the lucky thought; "E'en I, who know th' original, am caught, "And doubt my senses, when I view the draught.

"The slow-ascending hill, the lofty wood
"That mantles o'er its brow, the silver flood

Wand'ring in mazes through the flow'ry mead,
“ The herd that in the plenteous pastures feed,
"And every object, every scene, excites

“Fresh wonder in my soul, and fills with new delights: "Dwells cheerful Plenty there, and learned Ease, "And Art with Nature seems at strife to please. "There Liberty, delightful goddess, reigns,

"Gladdens each heart, and gilds the fertile plains;

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There, firmly seated, may she ever smile,

"And shower her blessings o'er her favourite isle !
"But see, the rising sun reproves our stay.'
He said, and to the ocean wing'd his way,
Stretching his course to climates then unknown,
Nations that swelter in the burning zone.

There, in Peruvian vales, a moment staid,

And smooth'd his wings beneath the citron shade;

Then swift his oary pinions plied again,

Cross'd the new world, and sought the Southern main;

Where, many a wet and weary league o'erpast,

The wish'd-for Paradise appear'd at last.

With force abated, now they gently sweep O'er the smooth surface of the shining deep; The Dryads hail'd them from the distant shore, The Nereids play'd around, the Tritons swam before,

While soft Favonius their arrival

greets,

And breathes his welcome in a thousand sweets.

Nor pale disease, nor health-consuming care,
Nor wrath, nor foul revenge, can enter there;
No vapour'd foggy gloom imbrowns the sky;
No tempests rage, no angry lightnings fly;
But dews, and soft refreshing airs are found,
And pure ethereal azure shines around.
Whate'er the sweet Sabæan soil can boast,
Or Mecca's plains, or India's spicy coast;
What Hybla's hills, or rich Œbalia's fields,
Or flowery vale of famed Hymettus yields;
Or what of old th' Hesperian orchard graced;
All that was e'er delicious to the taste,

Sweet to the smell, or lovely to the view,
Collected there with added beauty grew.
High tow'ring to the Heavens the trees are seen,
Their bulk immense, their leaf for ever green;
So closely interwove, the tell-tale sun
Can ne'er descry the deeds beneath them done,
But where by fits the sportive gales divide
Their tender tops, and fan the leaves aside.
Like a smooth carpet, at their feet lies spread
The matted grass, by bubbling fountains fed;