"'T is not," said Juan, "for my present doom I mourn, but for the past;--I loved a maid:"-- He paused, and his dark eye grew full of gloom; A single tear upon his eyelash staid A moment, and then dropped; "but to resume, 'Tis not my present lot, as I have said, Which I deplore so much; for I have borne Hardships which have the hardiest overworn, XIX. "On the rough deep. But this last blow--" and here He stopped again, and turned away his face. "Aye," quoth his friend, "I thought it would appear That there had been a lady in the case; And these are things which ask a tender tear, Such as I, too, would shed if in your place: I cried upon my first wife's dying day, And also when my second ran away: XX. "My third----"--"Your third!" quoth Juan, turning round; "You scarcely can be thirty: have you three?" "No--only two at present above ground: Surely 't is nothing wonderful to see One person thrice in holy wedlock bound!" "Well, then, your third," said Juan; "what did she? She did not run away, too,--did she, sir?" "No, faith."--"What then?"--"I ran away from her." XXI. "You take things coolly, sir," said Juan. "Why," Replied the other, "what can a man do? There still are many rainbows in your sky, But mine have vanished. All, when Life is new, Commence with feelings warm, and prospects high; But Time strips our illusions of their hue, And one by one in turn, some grand mistake Casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake. XXII. "'T is true, it gets another bright and fresh, Or fresher, brighter; but the year gone through, This skin must go the way, too, of all flesh, Or sometimes only wear a week or two;-- Love's the first net which spreads its deadly mesh; Ambition, Avarice, Vengeance, Glory, glue The glittering lime-twigs of our latter days, Where still we flutter on for pence or praise." XXIII. "All this is very fine, and may be true," Said Juan; "but I really don't see how It betters present times with me or you." "No?" quoth the other; "yet you will allow By setting things in their right point of view, Knowledge, at least, is gained; for instance, now, We know what slavery is, and our disasters May teach us better to behave when masters." XXIV. "Would we were masters now, if but to try Their present lessons on our Pagan friends here," Said Juan,--swallowing a heart-burning sigh: "Heaven help the scholar, whom his fortune sends here!" "Perhaps we shall be one day, by and by," Rejoined the other, "when our bad luck mends here; Meantime (yon old black eunuch seems to eye us) I wish to G--d that somebody would buy us.