Each was sensible of a secret pleasure that somebody else had dared to bell the cat.

And there, as midnight bells awake The Day of Birth, as they do tell, All into bud the small plants break With sweetest smell.

Why all the morning hath the cuckoo tolled, Sad, to and fro, in green and secret ways, With solemn bells the burden of his days?

For him let venal bards disgrace the bay, And hireling minstrels wake the tinkling string; Her sensual snares let faithless Pleasure lay; And jingling bells fantastic Folly ring; 100 Disquiet, doubt, and dread shall intervene, And Nature, still to all her feelings just, In vengeance hang a damp on every scene, Shook from the baneful pinions of Disgust.

At the devil's mart are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold, For a cap and bells our lives we pay.

For him let venal bards disgrace the bay, And hireling minstrels wake the tinkling string; Her sensual snares let faithless Pleasure lay; And jingling bells fantastic Folly ring; 100 Disquiet, doubt, and dread shall intervene, And Nature, still to all her feelings just, In vengeance hang a damp on every scene, Shook from the baneful pinions of Disgust.

" The Colonel whispered once more: "Mes belles demoiselles!