 | The Fall of the Leaf |  |
V.
Arno was fierce, impetuous, and proudLucca was gentle as a summer cloud!
55
They met,—they sign'd—and swore perpetual peace.
And still that peace with greater force to bind—
—Oh! unsuspecting folly of mankind!
To think that wolves, in equal games, will play,
With sheep and sheep-kin, all a summer's day,
And not resume their hatred and their power,
Should unsuspecting sheep offend in luckless hour!—
This peace to bind the firmer, Lucca's lord
Proposed to wed proud Arno's beauteous ward.
| The Fall of the Leaf | |