Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/266

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226
THE RAM.

him, she wept, she groaned, she knew that her unpunctuality had caused the death of the royal Ram. In her despair, she felt she should die herself.

It was then admitted that persons of the highest rank are subject, like others, to the blows of Fortune, and that they frequently meet with the greatest misery at the very moment they believe themselves to have attained the height of their wishes.

The choicest blessings sent by Heaven
Oft to our ruin only tend;
The charms, the talents, to us given,
But bring us to a mournful end.
The royal Ram had happier been
Without the graces which first led
Ragotte to love, then hurl her mean
Rut fatal vengeance on his head.
Sure, he deserved a better fate,
Who spurn'd a sordid Hymen's chains;
Honest his love—unmask'd his hate,—
How different from our modern swains!
Even his death may well surprise
The lovers of the present day,—
Only a silly sheep now dies,
Because his ewe has gone astray.