XVI.

" Say is the tempest past? " inquired
The dame, who from a swoon respired.
" Say is the tempest — ah! what's that?
Save me, Saint Roger! 'tis a rat!
What eyes! what teeth! what ears! what hair!
Look at its whiskers! what a pair!
And oh! Sir Tooleywhagg! see what
A long thick swinging tail 't has got!
Destroy it, or I faint again,
Throw, throw it back into the main! "
Perked on its dripping haunches stood
The bristling reptile of the flood,
And uttered to the bride a squeak,
That seemed almost a human shriek.
The shrieking bride sore, sore dismayed,
Almost a rat-like squeak repaid;
And hurried from the spot to yield
The rat possession of the field.

XVII.

Mused not the chieftain when his dear
Fled the apartment pale with fear?
Mused he not on the mystic ring?
The storm? the rat? — the everything?
Sat he not wrapt in doubt and woe,
And tranced in cogitation? — no.
The shallow cellules of his head
Were so preoccupied with lead,
That wanting intellectual space,
Reflection could not find a place.
But a rich fool, whose stars ordain
His pate shall be one blank of brain,
Ne'er long sits motionless alone,
He cannot think himself to stone;
Nor like the wise, or would-be wise,
Read, write, combine, philosophize;
Still with no labour of the mind,
Work for his limbs he's sure to find.
His body's action whiles away
His listless life in tiresome play,
And helps the cranium of the ass
Folly's long holidays to pass.
Left by his lady's sudden flight,
The busybodied brainless knight,
Barren of thought, deprived of chat,
Threw bread and butter to the rat.
The reptile, in a sullen mood,
Its whiskers twirled and spurned the food.

XVIII.

As the lone angler, patient man!
At Newry-Water or the Banne,
Leaves off against his placid wish,
Impaling worms to torture fish;
As dull at dusk he plods to rest,
Not even with a nibble blest,
So from the rat retired the knight,
Convinced he could not get a bite.
When to the anteroom he came,
A rat again — the very same.
He left it straight and sought the stair,
The animal sat crouching there.
He ranged his grand apartments through,
The yellow chamber, green, red, blue,
There was the water-reptile too!
Where could he go? where stay? where look?
At every turn, in every nook
He feared the rat would be espied,
And all his fears were ratified.

XIX.

Months fleeted since the earthquake's shock:
Meanwhile at Allyballyknock
Grand feasts were given in the hall
Of Lord Fitz Gallyhogmagawl;
Others at Craughternaughter Hill,
Where dwelt the pale Mac Twiddledill;
There came the knight, and thither sped
The little hairy quadruped,
Whom host and guests essayed in vain
To drive from the O'Shaughnashane.
Where'er he went, whate'er the hour,
On plain or hill, in hall or bower,
At prayer, meals, sport, all matters that
An Irish chieftain could be at,
There grinned the same eternal rat;
Eluding every effort still
To hurt, to catch it, or to kill.

XX.

On Blarneygig's high gateway reared,
A manifesto now appeared;
Sir Tooleywhagg's most strict command
Writ in his own improper hand;
From which, with pure and classic dread,
Orthography and grammar fled.
Five minutes' shower washed away
" Rade, andtak notis, " every day.
What mattered? for each vassal knew
His duty he was bound to do;
But in default of it might plead
Not one of them had learned to read.
By word of mouth the order then
Was given, and spread among the men;
That through the territory sought
To each apartment must be brought
That foe instinctive to a rat,
That tiger's miniature — the cat.