6
THE BATTALION.
And here he naturally says: “Foreswear it sight, I ne’er
saw true beauty till this night.”
Then the charming delightful way in which he first meets
her may be appearing to us bold and familiar but at the same
time to true lovers it is sweet, gentle and irresistible. In the
distance he looks on her, he has been electrified at first sight
by the sympathetic magnetism of nature the mind, the eye,
and the soul have found the sought for food. He looks on
her with the insatiable longing of love, his soul thirsts for
the congenial sympathy which instinct tells him is in sight,
and with her the feeling is reciprocated. They are within
tne grasp of that ^ure and powerful force which nothing can
withstand, the magnetism oflove. Slowly and softly he ap
proaches her, his face beaming with the glow of passion, his
step firm and elastic, in in his eye one looks into the depths
and wishes that, he might melt and run away in a stream of
delightful pleasure. He is the very symbol of beauty, of no
ble, grand and godlike manhood. She, how her eye beams
forth the fire oflove, warming her white cheeks into a glow,
soon interspersed with the white streaks of doubt and tim
orous expectancy. , Clothed in the graceful delicate garments,
bedecked with the rich jewels of Italian pride in the first
garments of womanhood, she stands like anew and full blown
rose.- God forbid that such a scene should be blackened by
the breath of Satan, misery. Gently he takes h'*r hand:
■‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy stirine the gentle sin is this;
My lips to blushing pilgrims readv stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Then the reply:
“Good pilgrim you do wrong your hand too much
Which mannerly devotion shows is this;
That saints have hands to touch and palm to palm
Is the holy palmers kiss.”
And etc., etc., runs the first brief but delightful conver
sation.
Then the second meeting with Romeo in the “Garden of