Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 36.djvu/128

Robert draws nigh, in hopes to find
Ease from perplexity of mind.
Just then all vanished from his sight,
Scarcely had day given place to night;
A toothless hag then met his eyes,
Sooty in hue and short of size,
Bent double, and with age oppressed,
She leaned upon a stick for rest.
Her nose, prodigious, long, and thin,
Extended till it met her chin;
Her eyes with rheum were galled and red,
A few white hairs her pate o'erspread;
A scrap of tapestry was her gown,
It o'er her wrinkled thigh hung down.
At such an odd and uncouth sight,
A sort of terror seized our knight.
The beldame, with familiar tone,
Accosts him thus: "I see, my son,
By your dejected, thoughtful air
Your heart feels some corroding care:
Relate to me your secret grief:
(To talk of woes gives some relief)
Although your case be e'er so bad,
Some consolation may be had.
I've long beheld this earthly stage,
And wisdom must increase with age.
The most unhappy oft have sped
To bliss by my directions led."
"Alas!" replied the knight, "in vain
I've sought instruction to obtain:
The fatal hour is drawing nigh,
I must upon a gibbet die!