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HISTORY OF

FAIR ROSAMOND.

HENRY the second was crowned king of England in the year 1154; he was an amorous man, though a great warrior, and took great delight in the con- versation of the fair ladies with which his court abounded. The courtiers being very assiduous in humouring the inclinations of their monarch, Henry frequently conversed with them on the subject of amours; and once commending, with more than ordinary warmth, the charms of a lady whose com- pany he had been in on the preceding evening, one of the courtiers, whom the king highly esteemed for his personal valour, thus replied- "Your majesty, it must be allowed, is an excel- lent judge of beauty, and the lady whom you speak of is a charming and elegant woman. But I have a niece who as far surpasses her in beauty, as she excels the most ordinary women in your dominions. Her eyes sparkle like twin stars ; her complexion outvies the lily, and her cheeks the rose. Her dimpled chin adds beauty to the rest, and makes her face a perfect oval; and her hands and arms excel, both in form and whiteness, the work of the finest painter or statuary; and no language can do justice to her majestic form and graceful mein."