Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/337

Rh Ah, thou rt roused. Thy master hath been robbed the Spagnoletto Maria of the Golden Locks his daughter. How is this known? ’T is a foul slander forged By desperate malice. What ! in the night, you say? She whose bright name was clean as gold, whose heart Shone a fixed star of loyal love and duty Beside her father s glory ! This coarse lie Denies itself. I will go seek the master, And if this very noon she walk not forth, Led by the Spagnoletto, through the streets, To blind the dazed eyes of her slanderers, I am your debtor for a hundred florins.

Your faith in womanhood becomes you, sir. (Aside.) A beggar s child the mistress of a Prince; Humph ! there be some might think the weight of scandal Lay on the other side. (To Lorenzo.) You need not forth