(His father's fault) but given to starts and bursts Of revel; and the last, my other heart,

My shadow, my half-self, for still we moved

Together, kin as horse's ear and eye.

Now while they spake, I saw my father's face Grow long and troubled like a rising moon, Inflamed with wrath: he started on his feet, Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof From skirt to skirt; and at the last he sware That he would send a hundred thousand men,

And bring her in a whirlwind: then he chew'd

The thrice-turn'd cud of wrath, and cook'd his spleen, Communing with his captains of the war.

At last I spoke. My father, let me go.

It cannot be but some gross error lies

In this report, this answer of a king,

Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable:

Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen,

Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame,

May rue the bargain made.' And Florian said : 'I have a sister at the foreign court,

Who moves about the Princess; she, you know, Who wedded with a nobleman from thence:

He, dying lately, left her, as I hear,

The lady of three castles in that land.

Thro' her this matter might be sifted clean.'

Then whisper'd Cyril: Take me with you too.
Trust me, I'll serve you better in a strait;
I grate on rusty hinges here;' but 'No!'
Replied the king, 'you shall not; I myself
Will crush these pretty maiden fancies dead
In iron gauntlets: break the council up.'

But when the council broke, I rose and past Thro' the wild woods that hung about the town; Found a still place, and pluck'd her likeness out; Laid it on flowers, and watch'd it lying bathed

In the green gleam of dewy-tassell'd trees:

What were those fancies? wherefore break her troth?

Proud look'd the lips: but while I meditated,

A wind arose and rush'd upon the South,

And shook the songs, the whispers, and the shrieks

Of the wild woods together; and a Voice

Went with it 'Follow, follow, thou shalt win.'

Then, ere the silver sickle of that month

Became her golden shield, I stole from court
With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived.
Down from the bastion'd walls we dropt by night,
And flying reach'd the frontier: then we crost
To a livelier land; and so, by town and thorpe,
And tilth, and blowing bosks of wilderness,

We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers,

And in the imperial palace found the king.

His name was Gama; crack'd and small his voice;

A little dry old man, without a star,

Not like a king: three days he feasted us,

And on the fourth I spake of why we came,

And my betroth'd. You do us, Prince,' he said, Airing a snowy hand and signet gem,

'All honour. We remember love ourselves

In our sweet youth: there did a compact pass
Long summers back, a kind of ceremony

I think the year in which our olives fail'd.
I would you had her, Prince, with all my heart,
With my full heart: but there were widows here,
Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche;
They fed her theories, in and out of place,
Maintaining that with equal husbandry

The woman were an equal to the man.

They harp'd on this; with this our banquets rang;

Our dances broke and buzz'd in knots of talk;

Nothing but this: my very ears were hot

To hear them. Last my daughter begg'd a boon,

A certain summer-palace which I have

Hard by your father's frontier: I said no,

Yet being an easy man, gave it; and there,

All wild to found an University

For maidens, on the spur she fled; and more

We know not, have not been; they see no men,

Not ev'n her brother Arac, nor the twins

Her brethren, tho' they love her, look upon her
As on a kind of paragon; and I

(Pardon me saying it) were much loth to breed
Dispute betwixt myself and mine: but since
(And I confess with right) you think me bound
In some sort, I can give you letters to her ;

And yet, to speak the truth, I rate your chance
Almost at naked nothing.'

Thus the king;

And I, tho' nettled that he seem'd to slur
With garrulous ease and oily courtesies

Our formal compact, yet not less all frets

But chafing me on fire to find my bride,
Set out once more with those two gallant boys;

Then pushing onward under sun and stars