Constantia: or, The Man of Law's Tale, Modernized from Chaucer - Part 26

Lo! in one hour, by fortune unforeseen,
The lowly Criminal becomes the Queen;
From shame to glory, anguish to repose,
From death to life, and bonds to freedom rose.
In love, as war, resistless, A LLA woo'd,
And whom he won by arms, by suit subdued:
C ONSTANTIA with her secret wish complied,
For A LLA would not, could not be denied.

Nor list we here, with pomp of long array,
To blazon forth that chaste connubial day;
To tell what numbers numberless, what knights
And glittering dames adorn'd the festal rites;
What joys the banquet or the bowl could yield,
Or what the trophies of the tilting field.
Loud were the revels, boundless was the mirth,
That hail'd the sweetest brightest pair on earth —
Of men, the wisest, bravest, fairest, He;
Of all that's beautiful most beauteous, She!
Love, nature, harmony, the union claim'd,
And each for each, and both for one were framed.
But we of subsequent adventure treat,
And hasten to unfold their future fate.

Some months young A LLA and his peerless bride,
In cordial bond of dear accordance tied,
Had look'd and smiled the precious hours away,
And fed on bliss that ne'er could know decay:
He, whose charm'd ear on that enchanting tongue
With thirst of fondest inclination hung,
Won by a preacher with so fair a face,
Becomes the zealous proselyte of Grace;
And subjects too their heathenish rites forego,
For still from courts, or vice, or virtues flow.
But ah! too soon, from beauty's softer charms,
War, rigorous war, and Scotia call to arms;
C ONSTANTIA must her blooming Hero yield,
For Honour sends him to the embattell'd field.

Mean-while, the pregnant fruit of chaste delight
With a male infant crown'd the nuptial rite;
All sweet and lovely as the smiling morn,
M AURITIUS was to bless a nation born:
Their pledge of future bliss, their princely boy,
The Britons hail with universal joy;
Their fancy frames him what their prayers require,
Sweet as their Queen, and valiant as his Sire.
Offa, to whom the King's departing care,
Inestimable charge! consigned the Fair,
Advice of loyal gratulation sent,
To glad his Sovereign with the blest event.

But Donnegilda, cruel, crafty dame,
Great A LLA'S mother, over-fond of fame,
She, (as all antique parents, wondrous sage,
For youth project the inappetence of age,
Each sense endearing and humane despise,
And on the Mammon feast their down-cast eyes)
Malevolent beheld a Stranger led,
Unknown, unfriended, to the Regal Bed:
For in the secret closet of her breast,
C ONSTANTIA her imperial birth supprest,
Till Heaven should perfect the connubial band,
And with her Royal Offspring bless the land.
" Ah! ill timed caution! were this truth declared,
" What a vast cost of future woe was spared!
" But where Heaven's will the unequal cause supplies,
" To set the world on fire a spark may well suffice. "
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