Don Juan 01-174
Canto the First

CLXXIV

Alfonso paused a minute-then begun
     Some strange excuses for his late proceeding;
He would not justify what he had done,
     To say the best, it was extreme ill-breeding;
But there were ample reasons for it, none
     Of which he specified in this his pleading:
His speech was a fine sample, on the whole,
Of rhetoric, which the learn'd call "rigmarole."

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) ByronLong