O'ercast with dim and darksome coverture. And now she lets him whisper in her ear, Flatter, entreat, promise, protest, and swear: Yet ever, as he greedily assay'd To touch those dainties, she the harpy play'd, And every limb did, as a soldier stout, Defend the fort, and keep the foeman out; For though the rising ivory mount he scal'd, Which is with azure circling lines empal'd. Much like a globe (a globe may I term this, By which Love sails to regions full of bliss,) Yet there with Sisyphus he toil'd in vain, Till gentle parley did the truce obtain. Even as a bird, which in our hands we wring, Forth plungeth, and oft flutters with her wing, She trembling strove: this strife of hers, like that Which made the world, another world begat Of unknown joy. Treason was in her thought, And cunningly to yield herself she sought. Seeming not won, yet won she was at length: In such wars women use but half their strength. Leander now, like Theban Hercules, Enter'd the orchard of th' Hesperides; Whose fruit none rightly can describe, but he That pulls or shakes it from the golden tree. Wherein Leander, on her quivering breast, Breathless spoke something, and sigh'd out the rest; Which so prevail'd, as he, with small ado, Enclos'd her in his arms, and kiss'd her too: And every kiss to her was as a charm, And to Leander as a fresh alarm: So that the truce was broke, and she, alas, Poor silly maiden, at his mercy was. Love is not full of pity, as men say, But deaf and cruel where he means to prey. And now she wish'd this night were never done, And sigh'd to think upon th' approaching sun; For much it griev'd her that the bright day-light Should know the pleasure of this blessed night, And them, like Mars and Erycine, display Both in each other's arms chain'd as they lay. Again, she knew not how to frame her look, Or speak to him, who in a moment took That which so long, so charily she kept; And fain by stealth away she would have crept, And to some corner secretly have gone, Leaving Leander in the bed alone. But as her naked feet were whipping out, He on the sudden cling'd her so about, That, mermaid-like, unto the floor she slid; One half appear'd the other half was hid. Thus near the bed she blushing stood upright, And from her countenance behold ye might A kind of twilight break, which through the air, As from an orient cloud, glimps'd here and there; And round about the chamber this false morn Brought forth the day before the day was born. So Hero's ruddy cheek Hero betray'd, And her all naked to his sight display'd: Whence his admiring eyes more pleasure took Than Dis, on heaps of gold fixing his look. By this, Apollo's golden harp began To sound forth music to the ocean; Which watchful Hesperus no sooner heard, But he the bright Day-bearing car prepar'd, And ran before, as harbinger of light, And with his flaring beams mock'd ugly Night Till she, o'ercome with anguish, shame, and rage, Dang'd down to hell her loathsome carriage.