'Take Lilia, then, for heroine' clamour'd he, 'And make her some great Princess, six feet high, Grand, epic, homicidal; and be you The Prince to win her!' 'Then follow me, the Prince,' I answer'd, each be hero in his turn! Seven and yet one, like shadows in a dream.— Heroic seems our Princess as required But something made to suit with Time and place, A Gothic ruin and a Grecian house, A talk of college and of ladies' rights, A feudal knight in silken masquerade, And, yonder, shrieks and strange experiments For which the good Sir Ralph had burnt them all This were a medley! we should have him back No matter we will say whatever comes. And let the ladies sing us, if they will, So I began, And the rest follow'd: and the women sang Between the rougher voices of the men, THE PRINCESS; A MEDLEY. 15 I. A PRINCE I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, There lived an ancient legend in our house. And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, An old and strange affection of the house. Myself too had weird seizures, Heaven knows what : On a sudden in the midst of men and day, And while I walk'd and talk'd as heretofore, I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts, To lash offence, and with long arms and hands Now it chanced that I had been, While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf At eight years old; and still from time to time evely. Came murmurs of her beauty from the South, And still I wore her picture by my heart, And one dark tress; and all around them both Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their queen. But when the days drew nigh that I should wed, My father sent ambassadors with furs And jewels, gifts, to fetch her: these brought back That morning in the presence room I stood With Cyril and with Florian, my two friends: C |