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ANCIENT PORTUGUESE BALLADS. 281
" Keep silent, daughter ! hearken ! What sweet song do you hear?
Is it a heavenly angel, or siren of the sea ? " " It is no heavenly angel's song, or siren's magic voice,
But Nillo, the Count Nillo, who comes to marry me."
" Who speaks of the Count Nillo, who dares to breathe his name ?
That traitor who defied me, and whom I have exiled." " The fault is mine alone ; I could not live without him,
Oh, pardon the Count Nillo, pardon your only child ! "
" Silence, dishonored daughter, let me not see your shame, Before the morning lightens, the Count shall lose his head."
"Let the headsman be prepared to take my life likewise, And the sexton dig a grave wide for a double bed."
The mournful bells are ringing ; for whose death do they knell?
Count Nillo has been slain ; the Infanta's soul has flown ; The body of Count Nillo was buried in the porch,
The Infanta laid to rest before the altar throne.
A cypress and an orange sprang from these lovers' graves, They grew and leaned together, and with their branches kissed.
The Bang in savage anger bade axemen cut them down, But from their severed trunks arose a heavenly mist.
From his cloud came a pigeon, from her cloud a ringdove, They flew before the King at his table as he ate.
" Accursed be the loves that thus mock me to my face, And neither life nor death has power to separate." |
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