It seeks its most precious captive in the strongest and bravest of hearts.

Love has dethroned kings, built up empires, set great nations at war, and made statesmen weep with sorrow.

Yea, it has made the mightiest to unbend, and brought them bowing before its altar.

It holds its capricious empire in every heart, prompts our ambition, guides and governs our actions, makes us heroes or cowards, and carries us hoping through the world.
It was love, then, that was holding its court on the occasion I am about to describe.

It was one of those bright and breezy spring mornings, when Nature seems to have decked herself in her brightest colors, giving such a charm to the banks of the Hudson.