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ND now behoveth me to tell

How Jealousy, beneath the spell

Of dark suspicious promptings, wrought.

Through all the country-side she sought

Masons and engineers, who made

A wide deep moat, with pick and spade,

Which many a penny cost to dig,

And there beside they raised a big

Thick towering wall of solid stone;

No marsh or bog it stood upon,

But firm and solid rock. It went

Within the moat by sheer descent,

And then rose upwards towards the sky

With ’minished breadth, and gained thereby

Great strength and firmness. Well was set

The wall in perfect square, and met

Each side of equal length, which ran

Well-nigh a hundred fathoms span.

Embattled towers, of stone well hewed,

Rose at the corners, each indued

With portal strong, which might defy

The assault of fiercest enemy;