To take revenge: how Azzo and his friend Were doing their endeavor, how the end O' the siege was nigh, and how the Count, released From further care, would with his marriage-feast [Sidenote: There is yet a way of escaping this;] Inaugurate a new and better rule, Absorbing thus Romano. "Shall I school My master," added Naddo, "and suggest How you may clothe in a poetic vest These doings, at Verona? Your response To Palma! Wherefore jest? 'Depart at once?' A good resolve! In truth, I hardly hoped So prompt an acquiescence. Have you groped Out wisdom in the wilds here?--Thoughts may be Over-poetical for poetry. Pearl-white, you poets liken Palma's neck; And yet what spoils an orient like some speck Of genuine white, turning its own white gray? You take me? Curse the cicala!" One more day, One eve--appears Verona! Many a group, (You mind) instructed of the osprey's swoop On lynx and ounce, was gathering--Christendom Sure to receive, whate'er the end was, from The evening's purpose cheer or detriment, Since Friedrich only waited some event Like this, of Ghibellins establishing Themselves within Ferrara, ere, as King Of Lombardy, he 'd glad descend there, wage Old warfare with the Pontiff, disengage His barons from the burghers, and restore The rule of Charlemagne, broken of yore By Hildebrand. [Sidenote: Which he now takes by obeying Palma:] I' the palace, each by each, Sordello sat and Palma: little speech At first in that dim closet, face with face (Despite the tumult in the market-place) Exchanging quick low laughters: now would rush Word upon word to meet a sudden flush, A look left off, a shifting lips' surmise-- But for the most part their two histories [Sidenote: Who thereupon becomes his associate.] Ran best through the locked fingers and linked arms. And so the night flew on with its alarms Till in burst one of Palma's retinue; "Now, Lady!" gasped he. Then arose the two And leaned into Verona's air, dead-still. A balcony lay black beneath until Out, 'mid a gush of torchfire, gray-haired men Came on it and harangued the people: then Sea-like that people surging to and fro Shouted, "Hale forth the carroch--trumpets, ho, A flourish! Run it in the ancient grooves! Back from the bell! Hammer--that whom behooves May hear the League is up! Peal--learn who list, Verona means not first of towns break tryst To-morrow with the League!" Enough. Now turn-- Over the eastern cypresses: discern! Is any beacon set a-glimmer? Rang The air with shouts that overpowered the clang Of the incessant carroch, even: "Haste--