IV

I sate beside him while the morning beam
Crept slowly over Heaven, and talked with him
Of those immortal hopes, a glorious theme!

Which led us forth, until the stars grew dim:
And all the while, methought, his voice did swim

As if it drowned in remembrance were

Of thoughts which make the moist eyes overbrim: At last, when daylight 'gan to fill the air,

1750

He looked on me, and cried in wonder-Thou art here!' 1755

V

Then, suddenly, I knew it was the youth

In whom its earliest hopes my spirit found;

But envious tongues had stained his spotless truth,
And thoughtless pride his love in silence bound,

And shame and sorrow mine in toils had wound, 1760

Whilst he was innocent, and I deluded;

The truth now came upon me, on the ground

Tears of repenting joy, which fast intruded,

Fell fast, and o'er its peace our mingling spirits brooded.

VI

Thus, while with rapid lips and earnest eyes

We talked, a sound of sweeping conflict spread As from the earth did suddenly arise;

1765

From every tent roused by that clamour dread, Our bands outsprung and seized their arms-we sped Towards the sound: our tribes were gathering far.

1770

Those sanguine slaves amid ten thousand dead Stabbed in their sleep, trampled in treacherous war The gentle hearts whose power their lives had sought to spare.

VII

Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child

Who brings them food, when winter false and fair 1775 Allures them forth with its cold smiles, so wild They rage among the camp ;-they overbear The patriot hosts-confusion, then despair Descends like night-when 'Laon!' one did cry:

Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shout did scare The slaves, and widening through the vaulted sky, Seemed sent from Earth to Heaven in sign of victory.

VIII

1781

In sudden panic those false murderers fled,
Like insect tribes before the northern gale:

But swifter still, our hosts encompassèd
Their shattered ranks, and in a craggy vale,

1785

Where even their fierce despair might nought avail,

Hemmed them around!-and then revenge and fear
Made the high virtue of the patriots fail:
One pointed on his foe the mortal spear-

I rushed before its point, and cried, 'Forbear, forbear!'

IX

The spear transfixed my arm that was uplifted
In swift expostulation, and the blood

1790

1795

Gushed round its point: I smiled, and-Oh! thou gifted
With eloquence which shall not be withstood,
Flow thus!'-I cried in joy, 'thou vital flood,
Until my heart be dry, ere thus the cause

For which thou wert aught worthy be subduedAh, ye are pale,-ye weep, your passions pause,'Tis well! ye feel the truth of love's benignant laws.

X

'Soldiers, our brethren and our friends are slain.
Ye murdered them, I think, as they did sleep!
Alas, what have ye done? the slightest pain
Which ye might suffer, there were eyes to weep,

1800

1806

But ye have quenched them-there were smiles to steep Your hearts in ɓalm, but they are lost in woe; And those whom love did set his watch to keep Around your tents, truth's freedom to bestow, Ye stabbed as they did sleep-but they forgive ye now.

ΧΙ

'Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain for ever breed?
We all are brethren-even the slaves who kill
For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed
On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed

1810

With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed
And all that lives or is, to be hath given,

1815

Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!

XII

'Join then your hands and hearts, and let the past Be as a grave which gives not up its dead

To evil thoughts.'-A film then overcast

My sense with dimness, for the wound, which bled
Freshly, swift shadows o'er mine eyes had shed.

When I awoke, I lay mid friends and foes,

And earnest countenances on me shed

1820

1825

The light of questioning looks, whilst one did close My wound with balmiest herbs, and soothed me to repose;

XIII

And one whose spear had pierced me, leaned beside,
With quivering lips and humid eyes;-and all

Seemed like some brothers on a journey wide

1830

Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall
In a strange land, round one whom they might call
Their friend, their chief, their father, for assay

Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall
Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array
Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day.

XIV

Lifting the thunder of their acclamation,
Towards the City then the multitude,
And I among them, went in joy-a nation
Made free by love;-a mighty brotherhood
Linked by a jealous interchange of good;

A glorious pageant, more magnificent

1835

1840

Than kingly slaves arrayed in gold and blood,
When they return from carnage, and are sent
In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement.

1845

XV

Afar, the city-walls were thronged on high,
And myriads on each giddy turret clung,
And to each spire far lessening in the sky

Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung;

As we approached, a shout of joyance sprung

1850

At once from all the crowd, as if the vast

And peopled Earth its boundless skies among

The sudden clamour of delight had cast,

When from before its face some general wreck had passed.

XVI

Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits,

Our armies through the City's hundred gates
Were poured, like brooks which to the rocky lair

1855

Throng from the mountains when the storms are there:
And, as we passed through the calm sunny air

A thousand flower-inwoven crowns were shed,
The token flowers of truth and freedom fair,
And fairest hands bound them on many a head,
Those angels of love's heaven, that over all was spread.

XVII

I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision:
Those bloody bands so lately reconciled,
Were, ever as they went, by the contrition
Of anger turned to love, from ill beguiled,
And every one on them more gently smiled,
Because they had done evil:-the sweet awe

1860

1865

Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow mild, And did with soft attraction ever draw

Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.

1871

XVIII

And they, and all. in one loud symphony
My name with Liberty commingling, lifted,
The friend and the preserver of the free!
The parent of this joy!' and fair eyes gifted
With feelings, caught from one who had uplifted
The light of a great spirit, round me shone;

1875

And all the shapes of this grand scenery shifted Like restless clouds before the steadfast sun,

1880

Where was that Maid? I asked, but it was known of none.

XIX

Laone was the name her love had chosen,

For she was nameless, and her birth none knew:
Where was Laone now?-The words were frozen
Within my lips with fear; but to subdue
Such dreadful hope, to my great task was due,
And when at length one brought reply, that she
To-morrow would appear, I then withdrew

To judge what need for that great throng might be,
For now the stars came thick over the twilight sea.

XX

Yet need was none for rest or food to care,

Even though that multitude was passing great,
Since each one for the other did prepare

All kindly succour-Therefore to the gate
Of the Imperial House, now desolate,

I passed, and there was found aghast, alone,
The fallen Tyrant!-Silently he sate

Upon the footstool of his golden throne,

1885

1890

1895

Which, starred with sunny gems, in its own lustre shone.

XXI

Alone, but for one child, who led before him
A graceful dance: the only living thing
Of all the crowd, which thither to adore him
Flocked yesterday, who solace sought to bring
In his abandonment!-She knew the King

1900

Had praised her dance of yore, and now she wove
Its circles, aye weeping and murmuring
Mid her sad task of unregarded love,

That to no smiles it might his speechless sadness move.

XXII

She fled to him, and wildly clasped his feet

1905

1911

When human steps were heard:-he moved nor spoke, Nor changed his hue, nor raised his looks to meet The gaze of strangers-our loud entrance woke The echoes of the hall, which circling broke

The calm of its recesses,-like a tomb

Its sculptured walls vacantly to the stroke
Of footfalls answered, and the twilight's gloom.
Lay like a charnel's mist within the radiant dome.

XXIII

The little child stood up when we came nigh;
Her lips and cheeks seemed very pale and wan,
But on her forehead, and within her eye

Lay beauty, which makes hearts that feed thereon
Sick with excess of sweetness; on the throne
She leaned; the King, with gathered brow, and lips
Wreathed by long scorn, did inly sneer and frown
With hue like that when some great painter dips
His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.

XXIV

1915

1920

1925

She stood beside him like a rainbow braided
Within some storm, when scarce its shadows vast
From the blue paths of the swift sun have faded;
A sweet and solemn smile, like Cythna's, cast
One moment's light, which made my heart beat fast,
O'er that child's parted lips-a gleam of bliss,

A shade of vanished days,-as the tears passed
Which wrapped it, even as with a father's kiss
I pressed those softest eyes in trembling tenderness.

XXV

The sceptred wretch then from that solitude
I drew, and, of his change compassionate,
With words of sadness soothed his rugged mood.
But he, while pride and fear held deep debate,
With sullen guile of ill-dissembled hate

1930

1935

1940

Glared on me as a toothless snake might glare:
Pity, not scorn I felt, though desolate
The desolator now, and unaware

The curses which he mocked had caught him by the hair.

XXVI

I led him forth from that which now might seem
A gorgeous grave: through portals sculptured deep
With imagery beautiful as dream

We went, and left the shades which tend on sleep
Over its unregarded gold to keep

Their silent watch.-The child trod faintingly,
And as she went, the tears which she did weep
Glanced in the starlight; wildered seemed she,
And when I spake, for sobs she could not answer me.

XXVII

At last the tyrant cried, 'She hungers, slave,
Stab her, or give her bread!'-It was a tone
Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave

1945

1950

1955