Theo Marzials: The Love-Token

SHE has griffins twain to guard her gate, 
A mastiff-hound to watch her in the hall, 
A page for her train when she walks in state, 
And minstrels and maidens around her to wait, 
And lovers and gallants at beck and call ; 
But ah ! she left her shutter a-jar 
For the cool to climb over the window-bar! 

The griffins grinned in the moonlight green, 
The hound by the grim red embers slept; 
I scraped a chord on my mandoline, 
A chord, pardie, that might ruin a queen! 
And softly a-down the garden I crept; 
And ah ! the song slid thro' the shutter a-jar, 
And the lady leaned over the window-bar!