XXIII.

Her very first draught of vital air,
It was not the common chameleon fare
  Of plebeian lungs and noses,—­
    No—­her earliest sniff
    Of this world was a whiff
  Of the genuine Otto of Roses!

XXIV.

When she saw the light, it was no mere ray
Of that light so common—­so everyday—­
  That the sun each morning launches—­
But six wax tapers dazzled her eyes,
From a thing—­a gooseberry bush for size—­
  With a golden stem and branches.

XXV.

She was born exactly at half-past two,
As witness’d a timepiece in ormolu
  That stood on a marble table—­
Showing at once the time of day,
And a team of Gildings running away
  As fast as they were able,
With a golden God, with a golden Star,
And a golden Spear, in a golden Car,
  According to Grecian fable.

XXVI.

Like other babes, at her birth she cried;
Which made a sensation far and wide—­
  Ay, for twenty miles around her: 
For though to the ear ’twas nothing more
Than an infant’s squall, it was really the roar
  Of a Fifty-thousand Pounder! 
    It shook the next heir
    In his library chair,
And made him cry, “Confound her!”

XXVII.

Of signs and omens there was no dearth,
Any more than at Owen Glendower’s birth,
  Or the advent of other great people
    Two bullocks dropp’d dead,
    As if knock’d on the head,
    And barrels of stout
    And ale ran about,
And the village bells such a peal rang out,
  That they crack’d the village steeple.

XXVIII.

In no time at all, like mushroom spawn,
Tables sprang up all over the lawn;
  Not furnish’d scantly or shabbily,
    But on scale as vast
    As that huge repast,
    With its loads and cargoes
    Of drink and botargoes,
  At the Birth of the Babe in Rabelais.

XXIX.

Hundreds of men were turn’d into beasts,
Like the guests at Circe’s horrible feasts,
  By the magic of ale and cider: 
And each country lass, and each country lad
Began to caper and dance like mad,
And ev’n some old ones appear’d to have had
  A bite from the Naples Spider.

XXX.

  Then as night came on,
  It had scared King John
Who considered such signs not risible,
  To have seen the maroons,
  And the whirling moons,
  And the serpents of flame,
  And wheels of the same,
That according to some were “whizzable.”