The saintly maiden continually besought the Almighty to remove the exterior stigmas, on account of the trouble and fatigue which they occasioned, and her prayer was granted at the end of seven years.

Her hair trained backas Redbud's wasin the fashion called La Pompadour; her red-heeled rosetted shoesher silken gownall this was plainly the costume of a courtly maiden.

first, foremost, leading; maiden. begun &c v.; just begun &c v..

Or may the maiden haply be compared To sweetest honey, that no mortal lip Has sipped; or, rather, to the mellowed fruit Of virtuous actions in some former birth, Now brought to full perfection?

Now she is sitting, yet still we behold her majestical stature, And the blue petticoat's ample plaits, that down from her bosom Hangs in abundant folds about her neatly shaped ankles, She without question it is; come, therefore, and let us discover Whether she honest and virtuous be, a housewifely maiden.

She gives him this ring; she asks him to be her husbandnosurely a modest maiden would not do that."

He himself set off early in the day, it was 10th July, and he asked Isabella to follow with her maidens leisurely.

But now farewell to each and alladieu To every charm, and last and chief to you, Ye lovely maidens that in noontide shade Rest near your little plots of wheaten glade; 130 To all that binds the soul in powerless trance, Lip-dewing song, and ringlet-tossing dance; Where sparkling eyes and breaking smiles illume The sylvan cabin's lute-enlivened gloom.

The two matronly maidens were very busily employed in making a new cap.

A little maid was passing by; She caught the rogue,he could not fly, O naughty little maiden!

Does it become a high caste maiden outwardly to exhibit her inward feelings, and abandon the straight line of virgin modesty by behaviour that betrays her heart?

"But she was strange to me: I could not speak For glad amazement, mixed with some dark fear; I saw her stand no longer pale and weak, But a proud maiden, queenly and most clear, With flashing eyes and vermeil in her cheek: And on the little table, set anear, I marked two goblets of rare workmanship With some strange liquor crownèd to the lip.

A nun demure of lowly port; Or sprightly maiden, of Love's court, In thy simplicity the sport Of all temptations; 20 A queen in crown of rubies drest; A starveling in a scanty vest; Are all, as seems to suit thee best, Thy appellations.

The Duke needed no encouragement as the universal lover and ravisher of the most comely maidens in Florence.

A nod, a glance, and straight your maidens fly To execute your hest with loving zeal.