. - CHAPTER VII. Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More to be dreaded when thou showest thee in a child, Than th#sea-monster. THE protracted imprisonment of Queen Eleanor infuri-ated her Provençal subjects. The southern court, deprived of its most brilliant gem, no longer attracted the gifted and the gay from all parts of Europe. The troubadours in effect hung their harps on the willows, and the faithful Peyrol, banished from the presence of his beloved mistress, at-tempted to console the weary hours of her captivity, by tender Plaintes, in which with touching simplicity he be-wailed her misfortunes. " Daughter of Aquitaine," wrote he, " fair fruitful vine, thou hast been torn from thy coun-try, and led into a strange land. Thy harp is changed into the voice of mourning, and thy songs into sounds of lamentation. Brought up in delicacy and abundance, thou enjoyedst a royal liberty, living in the bosom of wealth, delighting thyself with the sports of thy women, with their songs, to the sound of the lute and tabor ; and now thou mournest, thou weepest, thou consumest thyself with sor-row. Return, poor prisoner—return to thy cities, if thou canst ; and if thou canst not, weep and say, ' Alas 1 how long is my exile.' "Weep, weep, and say, ' My tears are my bread both day and night.' "Where are thy guards, thy royal escort?—where thy maiden train, thy counsellors of state ? Thou criest, but no one hears thee ! for the king of the north keeps thee shut up like a town that is be-sieged. Cry then—cease not to cry. Raise thy voice like a trumpet, that thy sons may hear it ; for the day is ap-proaching when thy sons shall deliver thee, and then shalt thou see again thy native land." But the warlike chiefs of Guienne did not confine them-selves to expressions of tenderness. Richard and Geoffrey, ELEANOR. 185