The Little Girl Found

5Tired and woe-begone,

6Hoarse with making moan,

7Arm in arm, seven days

8They traced the desert ways.

9Seven nights they sleep

10Among shadows deep,

11And dream they see their child

12Starved in desert wild.

13Pale through pathless ways

14The fancied image strays,

15Famished, weeping, weak,

16With hollow piteous shriek.

17Rising from unrest,

18The trembling woman pressed

19With feet of weary woe;

20She could no further go.

21In his arms he bore

22Her, armed with sorrow sore;

23Till before their way

24A couching lion lay.

25Turning back was vain:

26Soon his heavy mane

27Bore them to the ground,

28Then he stalked around,

29Smelling to his prey;

30But their fears allay

31When he licks their hands,

32And silent by them stands.

33They look upon his eyes,

34Filled with deep surprise;

35And wondering behold

36A spirit armed in gold.

37On his head a crown,

38On his shoulders down

39Flowed his golden hair.

40Gone was all their care.

41"Follow me," he said;

42"Weep not for the maid;

43In my palace deep,

44Lyca lies asleep."

45Then they followed

46Where the vision led,

47And saw their sleeping child

48Among tigers wild.

49To this day they dwell

50In a lonely dell,

51Nor fear the wolvish howl

52Nor the lion's growl.