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252 ANCIENT PORTUGUESE BALLADS.
" Wait, wait, Count Yanno, kill me not, but let me go and hide In my dear father's distant house, where I can dwell apart.
" There I will live a maid again, and keep my true troth-plight ; There I will rear this infant, and guard him from all sin ; Though sorrow lies between us two, he '11 be my dear delight, And I '11 be faithful to my love as I have always been."
" How can that be, my best beloved, it is the king's black will Within that gilded basin there to see your severed head." " Wait, wait, Count Yanno, kill me not, I have a refuge still; The cloistered nuns will guard me, when to their cells I 've fled.
" My bread be measured by the ounce, my drink quench not
my thirst, Then speedily my death will come, nor will the princess
know." " How can that be, my best beloved, since in that basin curst I must thy severed head before the king and princess show."
" Enclose me in a dungeon dark, where neither sun nor moon Shall light the hours I count by sighs until my life has fled." " How can that be, my best beloved ? the hour will come full
soon When in that gilded basin there the king must see your
head."
The king knocked harshly at the door as these last words
were said : " If the Countess still is living, quick, quick, make haste to
slay." |
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