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Rh

O that it might!—We'll have a rousing blaze! So lightly bounds my heart, I could like midnight goblins round the flame Unruly orgies hold.—Ha! think ye not, When to the font our mail-clad infant comes, Ulrick will a right gracious gossip prove?

Viol. Assuredly, so will his honour prompt.

Aur. Nay, rather say his pride. Methinks I see him; His darken'd figure striding cross the hall, While his high plume, that noddles to and fro, Shews his perturb'd and restless courtesy. Good, noble, happy wight! Yet woe betide The luckless hound that fawns on him that day! His dismal yell disturbs the ceremony. Ha, ha! I needs must laugh.

Ter. Indeed you let your fancy wildly run, And disappointment will but prove the sharper.

Aur. Talk not of disappointment; be assur'd Some late intelligence hath Ulrick prompted To these stern orders. On our sea there sails, Or soon will sail, some vessel, which right gladly He would permit to founder on the coast, Or miss its course. But no, it will not be: In spite of all his hatred, to the shore, Thro' seas as dark as subterraneous night, It will arrive in safety.

Ter. Nay, sweet Aurora, feed not thus thy wishes With wild unlikely thoughts; for Ulrick surely No such intelligence hath had, and thou