8.

" Daughter of merchant strangers! thou
Endanger'd art, and lonely now.
Within a bow-shot of my tower,
I have a shelter'd plot and bower;
There dwell thou safe, my queen and guest;
This I, who might command, request.
For who seeks now thy dwelling lonely?
Fish-eating, hare-fed Adwick only —
A head-long, blaze-brain'd, wisdom-troubling
Fool, with new good old evils doubling;
And thou, by shielding that doom'd man,
Incurr'st the King-Priest's deadly ban.
Well saith the saw of ancient date,
" The empty friend devours his mate:"
Shun, then, th' accurs'd, or share his fate.
Is it because his savag'd brow
Darkens a rebel's lip below,
While sun-tann'd hide, and storm-comb'd hair,
(Fit raiment both, for wolf and bear,)
Clothe broadest breast, and largest limb,
That maidens run such risks for him? "