And will not toss and chatter the night | And therefore was she kind and gentle as The Age of Gold (when Gold was yet unknown,

But wide awake she was, and round her bed, | A bee flew out and stung her to the heart,
With floating draperies and with flying hair, And so-she awoke with a great scream and
With eager eyes,and light but hurried tread,
And bosoms, arms, and ancles glancing bare,
And bright as any meteor ever bred
By the North-Pole,-they sought her cause
of care,

For she seem'd agitated, flush'd, and frighten'd,

Her eye dilated and her colour heighten'd.

But what is strange-and a strong proof
how great

A blessing is sound sleep-Juanna lay
As fast as ever husband by his mate
In holy matrimony snores away.
Not all the clamour broke her happy state
Of slumber,ere they shook her, so they say
At least, and then she too unclosed her eyes,
And yawn'd a good deal with discreet
surprise.

And now commenced a strict investigation,
Which, as all spoke at once, and more
than once

Conjecturing, wondering,asking a narration,
Alike might puzzle either wit or dunce
To answer in a very clear oration.
Dudù had never pass'd for wanting sense,
But, being "no orator, as Brutus is,"
Could not at first expound what was amiss.

At length she said, that, in a slumber sound,
She dream'd a dream of walking in a wood-
A "wood obscure," like that where Dante
found

Himself in at the age when all grow good;
Life's half-way house, where dames with
virtue crown'd,

Run much less risk of lovers turning rude; -
And that this wood was full of pleasant fruits,
And trees of goodly growth and spreading
roots;

And in the midst a golden apple grew,—
A most prodigious pippin—but it hung
Rather too high and distant; that she threw
Her glances on it, and then, longing, flung
Stones, and whatever she could pick up, to
Bring down the fruit, which still perversely
clung

To its own bough, and dangled yet in sight,
But always at a most provoking height ; -

That on a sudden, when she least had hope,
It fell down of its own accord, before
Her feet; that her first movement was to stoop
And pick it up, and bite it to the core;
That just as her young lip began to ope
Upon the golden fruit the vision bore,

start.

All this she told with some confusion and Dismay, the usual consequence of dreams Of the unpleasant kind, with none at hand To expound their vain and visionary gleams. | I've known some odd ones which seem'd really plann'd

Prophetically, or that which one deems
"A strange coincidence," to use a phrase
By which such things are settled now-a-days.

The damsels, who had thoughts of some
great harm,
Began, as is the consequence of fear,
To scold a little at the false alarm
That broke for nothing on their sleeping ear.
The matron too was wroth to leave her warm
Bed for the dream she had been obliged
to hear,

And chafed at poor Dudù, who only sigh'd,
And said that she was sorry she had cried.

"I've heard of stories of a cock and bull;
But visions of an apple and a bee,
To take us from our natural rest, and pull
The whole Oda from their beds at half-past
three,

Would make us think the moon is at its full.
You surely are unwell, child! we must see,
To-morrow, what his Highness's physician
Will say to this hysteric of a vision.

| And poor Juanna too! the child's first night
Within these walls, to be broke in upon
With such a clamour-I had thought it right
That the young stranger should not lie alone,
And as the quietest of all, she might
With you, Dudù, a good night's rest have
known;

But now I must transfer her to the charge
Of Lolah—though her couch is not so large.”

Lolah's eyes sparkled at the proposition;
But poor Dudu, with large drops in her own,
Resulting from the scolding or the vision,
Implored that present pardon might be shown
For this first fault, and that on no condition
(She added in a soft and piteous tone)
Juanna should be taken from her, and
Her future dreams should all be kept in hand.

She promised never more to have a dream,
At least to dream so loudly as just now;
She wonder'd at herself how she could

scream

Twas foolish, nervous, as she must allow.

Had Catherine and the Sultan understood |Gulbeyaz was no model of true patience, Their own true interests, which kings rarely know,

Until 'tis taught by lessons rather rude,
There was a way to end their strife, although
Perhaps precarious, had they but thought
good,

Without the aid of Prince or Plenipo:
She to dismiss her guards and he his haram,
And for their other matters, meet and
share 'em.

But as it was, his Highness had to hold
His daily council upon ways and means,
How to encounter with this martial scold,
This modern Amazon and Queen of Queans;
And the perplexity could not be told
Of all the pillars of the state, which leans
Sometimes a little heavy on the backs
Of those who cannot lay on a new tax.

Meantime Gulbeyaz, when her king was
gone,

Retired into her boudoir, a sweet place
For love or breakfast; private, pleasing,lone,
And rich with all contrivances which grace
Those gay recesses:- many a precious stone
Sparkled along its roof, and many a vase
Of porcelain held in the fetter'd flowers,
Those captive soothers of a captive's hours.

Mother of pearl, and porphyry, and marble
Vied with each other on this costly spot;
And singing birds without were heard to
warble;

And the stain'd glass which lighted this
fair grot
Varied each ray; but all descriptions garble
The true effect, and so we had better not
Be too minute; an outline is the best,-
A lively reader's fancy does the rest.

And here she summon'd Baba, and required
Don Juan at his hands, and information
Of what had past since all the slaves retired,
And whether he had occupied their station;
If matters had been managed as desired,
And his disguise with due consideration
Kept up; and above all, the where and how
He had pass'd the night, was that she wish'd
to know.

Nor much disposed to wait in word or deed;
She liked quick answers in all conversations;
And when she saw him stumbling like a steed
In his replies, she puzzled him for fresh ones;
And as his speech grew still more broken-
knee'd,

Her cheek began to flush, her eyes to sparkle
And her proud brow's blue veins to swell
and darkle.

When Baba saw these symptoms, which he knew

To bode him no great good, he deprecated
Her anger, and beseech'd she'd hear him
through-

He could not help the thing which he related:
Then out it came at length, that to Dudù
Juan was given in charge,as hath been stated;
But not by Baba's fault, he said, and swore on
The holy camel's hump, besides the Koran.

The chief dame of the Oda, upon whom
The discipline of the whole Haram bore,
For Baba's function stopt short at the door,
As soon as they re-enter'd their own room,
Had settled all; nor could he then presume
(The aforesaid Baba) just then to do more,
Without exciting such suspicion as
Might make the matter still worse than
it was.

He hoped, indeed he thought he could be

sure

Juan had not betray'd himself; in fact
'Twas certain that his conduct had been pure,
Because a foolish or imprudent act
Would not alone have made him insecure,
But ended in his being found out and sack'd,
And thrown into the sea. -Thus Baba spoke
Of all save Dudù's dream, which was no joke.

This he discreetly kept in the back-ground,
And talk'd away-and might have talk'd
till now,

For any further answer that he found,
So deep an anguish wrung Gulbeyaz' brow;
Her cheek turn'd ashes, ears rung, brain
whirl'd round,

As if she had received a sudden blow,
And the heart's dew of pain sprang fast and
chilly
O'er her fair front, like Morning's on a lily.

Although she was not of the fainting sort, Baba thought she would faint, but there he err'd ;

Baba, with some embarrassment, replied
To this long catechism of questions ask'd
More easily than answer'd, that he had tried
His best to obey in what he had been task'd;
But there seem'd something that he wish'd
to hide,
Which hesitation more betray'd than mask'd; It was but a convulsion, which though short
He scratch'd his ear, the infallible resource Can never be described; we all have heard,
To which embarrass'd people have recourse. | And some of us have felt thus "all amort,”