“But I have a husband that loves me dear;
I promised him never to part.”
“Through the salt sea’s foam and the earth’s hot breath,
Through the grapplings of hell and the gates of death
I have come for thee, Joney, my heart.”
“But I have a child of my body so sweet—
Little Jannie that sleeps in the cot.”
“By the glimpse of the moon, at the top of the tide,
Ere the crow of the cock our vessel must ride,
Or what will befall us, God wot.”
“Now, ever alack, thou must kiss and go back;
My love, I am never for thee.”
“As sure as yon ship to the billows that roll,
By the plight of our troth, both body and soul
You belong to me, graih my chree.”
She followed him forth like to one in a sleep;
It was a woeful and wonderous sight.
The moon on his face from a rift in a clond
Showed it white and wan as a face in a shroud,
And his ship on the sea gleamed white.
IV.
“Now weigh and away, my merry men all.”
The crew laughed loud in their glee.
“With the rich man’s pride and his sweet daughter,
In the spite of wind and the wild water—
To the banks of Italy!”
The anchor was weighed, the canvas was spread,
All in the storm and the dark,
With never a reef in a stitch of sail,
But standing about to burst the gale
Merrily sped the barque.
