The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-04-14
4 RIDE FOR THE RtNc+:

th Af6hV
Il RIDE FOR THE RtMC.
Then might you hear each valiant knight,
To page and squire that cried, -
wight, :si -,
1t is not each day that warriors might
May win him royal BRIDE"
It is the privilege of old romancers
and of certain modern novelists to
commence their works with descrip-
tion of scenery. One voluminous
and popular author, who has extract
ed more ''ightreading" from the dry
pages of history than any of his CO.
temporaries, invariably introduced
into his first chapter two knights on
horseback, setting sun ominous of
rain, and q mountainous country,
with lake in its bosom" We viii
not exact from our readers imagina-
tion any such exalted flights as these.
We will only entreat that courteous
individual to fancy an archduchesss
in garden-an .archduchess, we re-
peat, in garden. Pleasant subjects,
both, and requiring no great mental
exertion to contemplate. The ques-
ton is simply this-what sort of an
arohduchess, and what sort of gar
den? Well, it is easier to describe
the setting than the. gem, the frame
than the picture, the landscape than
the sunshine. Perhaps we had better:
begin with the garden.
A square of short, much -trodden
turf, on which the daisies are already
beginning to, :, droop their modest
heads and shut up for the night; q
few aower-beds ranged with mathe-.
matical, or rather say with military,
precision, and containing plenty of
roses, stocks, and such commoner
flowers, none ofswhich, have yetscome
into bloom, for it is spring-tfme still
Three high close-cut beechen hedges
In the most tender verdure, yet i'm
. pervious as the walls of palace, and
on the fourth side, where to secure
uninterrupted privacy another hedge
ought to rise, murmuring brook,
'That to the sleeping woods all night
.Singeth its quiet tune"
and beyond that @ fair expanse of
meadows sloping away to the dark
pine forest, above which the evening
star glitters like silver lamp out. Of
the pale serene sky. The place is,
indeed, retired, though small. No
thing oyerlooks it except one tallrow
of poplars, whispering and quivering
in the light air that watts with it the
sound of yespers on the ear of the
only occupant of the garden-the
archduchess herself. a i.
Again we must entreat the readers
forbearance, and request an utter re-
pudiation of oil preconceived notions
of IN archduchess-an archduchess,
too, of Austria. No nez retousse, no
hair dragged back a pInperatrice, no
prominent "here weare again" express
sion such as we are accustomed to see
with the inane smirk of the Austrian
mouth, in our galleries and their own,
where Austrian archduchesses are
always represented as foolish, full
grown, full-blown blondes, making
the most of their red cheeks and their
white bosoms, and their general va
cancy of countenance and pointless-
ness of demeanor..
No; our archduchess is of differ
ent pattern altogether. AS she steps
pensively along the grass alley be-
tween the fower-beds, would that we
could sit down and sketch her in life
like chalks and crayons and. colors
rather than in the dull outline OF
mere pen and ink. She is q young
queenly woman of some twenty sum.
mers. Her very walk is majestic in
its feminine grace, and the flowing
lines Of noble figure, with its rounded
symmetry of limb, are we'll in cha.
racter with the stately pose of hea6
that would adorn diadem, and a full
white neck and bosom, against which
the royal ermine itself loses its purity
Even the very action of her SHAPED,
hand and chiselled arm, bare from
the elbow, denotes O. certain impe
rious wilfulness, a certain playful
impatience, less the result Of higl
birth than conscious beauty; fo
beauty, indeed, she possesses, will
all her dignity, of thu most womanl,
and most attractive kind. The fea
lures are more of the Norman THAI
the Saxon type. The eagle look con
ferred by those arched eyebrows
which she has inherited from her war
like ancestors, is redeemed by til,
purity and gentleness of that wide
low forehead, framed in its masses O