Lat. 2l.)--and his Highness Burmese,
Being very hard prest to shell out the rupees,
And not having rhino sufficient, they say, meant
To pawn his august Golden Foot[2] for the payment.
(How lucky for monarchs, that thus when they choose
Can establish a _running_ account with the Jews!)
The security being what Rothschild calls "goot,"
A loan will be shortly, of course, set _on foot_;
The parties are Rothschild, A. Baring and Co.
With three other great pawnbrokers: each takes a toe,
And engages (lest Gold-foot should give us _leg_-bail,
As he did once before) to pay down _on the nail_.
* * * * *
This is all for the present--what vile pens and paper!
Yours truly, dear Cousin--best love to Miss Draper.
_September_, 1826.
[1] A distribution was made of the Emperor Alexander's military wardrobe
by his successor.
[2] This potentate styles himself the Monarch of the Golden foot.
A VISION.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "CHRISTABEL."
"Up!" said the Spirit and ere I could pray
One hasty orison, whirled me away
To a Limbo, lying--I wist not where--
Above or below, in earth or air;
For it glimmered o'er with a _doubtful_ light,
One couldn't say whether 'twas day or night;
And 'twas crost by many a mazy track,
One didn't know how to get on or back;
And I felt like a needle that's going astray
(With its _one_ eye out) thro' a bundle of hay;
When the Spirit he grinned, and whispered me,
"Thou'rt now in the Court of Chancery!"
Around me flitted unnumbered swarms
Of shapeless, bodiless, tailless forms;
(Like bottled-up babes that grace the room
Of that worthy knight, Sir Everard Home)--
All of them, things half-killed in rearing;
Some were lame--some wanted _hearing_;
Some had thro' half a century run,
Tho' they hadn't a leg to stand upon.
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