And so defile their virgin purity.
For all that here delighted woman's eyes
Was freely lavished by their royal sires;
And countless guards to watch all day were there,
And maidens numberless to sport with them
And while away their tedious hours of life
With tales of youth, who, bolder than the rest,
Leapt over moats and scaled steep battlements
To have a glimpse of those more dear than life,
But who, alas! were doomed to endless woe,
And sent to pine away in dungeons dark
For tainting with their feet forbidden ground.
But soon their life was changed--the royal bride,
Before the happy bridal hour began,
Was first by all her kindred freely seen,
And straightway taken to the palace hall
To choose and then make known her future lord
From anxious suitors there, and thenceforth spend
With him her days of freedom and of joy.[4]
E'en so, none dared, so fearful is the gorge,
To gaze upon the river's loveliness,
Except those inmates of the mountain caves,
That in the noontide hour, to quench their thirst,
Climb down, regardless of the huntsman's bow,
Or save the vultures of the air, those birds
Which, soaring on majestic wings aloft,
Alight, as if by instinct drawn, upon
Her shady margins, there to feast upon
The carcass of some beast that died of age.
But soon the valley widens, and she flows