" The staring eyes grew suddenly narrow, the scarlet mouth curled in a slow smile, and the tall man spake, yet with his gaze bent ever upon Beltane: "Fair lords," he said, "and you, most sweet and gentle ladies, our sport hath been but poor, hithertomethinks I can show you a better, 'tis a game we play full oft in my country.

Now Beltane had wrestled oft with strangers in the greenwood and had learned many cunning and desperate holds; moreover, he had learned to bide his time; thus, though Gefroi's iron muscles yet pinned his arms, he waited, calm-eyed but with every nerve a-quiver, for that moment when Gefroi's vicious grip should slacken.

And oft at night, beside her chair, Would Gottlieb sit, and plan The wonderful things he would do for her, When he grew to be a man.

"Thus the mail'd tortoise, and the wand'ring; eel, Oft to the neighbouring beach will silent steal.

" So, in a while, they set off through the forest, first Godric to guide them, then Beltane astride the great war-horse with the Duchess before him, she very anxious for his wound, yet speaking oft of the future with flushing cheek and eyes a-dream.

Rewards, that either would to virtue bring No joy, or be destructive of the thing: How oft by these at sixty are undone The virtues of a saint at twenty-one!

full oft for loving you I blesse my lot, that was so lucky placed:

Now, of a sudden the clarions rang out a point of war, and all voices were hushed, as, forth into the lists, upon his richly-caparisoned charger, my lord Duke Ivo rode, followed by his chiefest lords and barons; and as he rode, he smiled to himself full oft as one that meditates a hidden jest.

Him the fierce Arab mounts, and with his troop Of bold compeers, ranges the deserts wild, Where by the magnet's aid, the traveller Steers his untrodden course; yet oft on land Is wrecked, in the high-rolling waves of sand 320 Immersed and lost; while these intrepid bands, Safe in their horses' speed, out-fly the storm, And scouring round, make men and beasts their prey.

And Albenzaide keep thy tastes Proportioned to thy state; For oft from unrestrained desires Spring hopes infatuate.

How know you this?" "I was her bedfellow betimes, and oft within the night have heard her speak a name unto her pillow, as love-sick maids will.

How oft amidst Thick cloud and dark doth Heavns all-ruling Sire Chuse to reside, his Glory umobscured, And with the Majesty of Darkness round Covers his Throne; from whence deep Thunders roar Mustering their Rage, and Heavn resembles Hell?

] "Oft to his frozen lair Tracked I the grisly bear, While from my path the hare Fled like a shadow; Oft through the forest dark Followed the werewolf's bark, Until the soaring lark Sang from the meadow.

Bright was the day, and on the spreading trees The frolic citizens of forest sung Their lays and merry notes on perching boughs; When suddenly appeared in the east Seven mighty eagles with their talons fierce, Who, waving oft about our consul's head, At last with hideous cry did soar away.

And always I did go warily, and chiefly among the low moss-bush; but sometimes out upon stony ground, and oft across places where sulphur did puff somewhat from the ground in a low smoke, very strong in the nostrils and not liked inwardly.

Ye who now, with footsteps keen, Range through hope's delusive field, Tell us what the smiling scene To your ardent grasp can yield? Other youths have oft before Deem'd their joys would never fade, Till themselves were seen no more Swept into oblivion's shade.

Surely, if he had any common sense, any feeling of right and wrong left in him, he must have known that he had done a bad thing; and his guilty conscience must have tormented him many a time and oft during those months, long before Nathan came to him.

To him no temple stood Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he In temples, and at altars, when the priest Tarns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled With lust and violence the house of God?