Frantic, dismayed, he takes his stand-
Dismayed, he strays and shouts around:
His voice awakes no answering sound.
No boat will leave the sheltering strand,
To bear him to the wished-for land;
No boatman will Death's pilot be;
The wild stream gathers to a sea!
Prostrate a while he raves- - he weeps;
Then raised his arms to Jove, and cried "Stay thou, O, stay the maddening tide! Midway, behold, the swift sun sweeps And ere he sink adown the deeps, If I should fail, his beams will see My friend's last anguish-slain for me!" Fierce runs the stream; more broad it flows. And wave on wave succeeds, and dies; And hour on hour, remorseless, flies; Despair at last to daring grows: Amid the flood his form he throws, With vigorous arm the roaring waves Cleaves, and a God that pities saves!
He wins the bank, his path pursues,
The anxious terrors hound him on-
Lo! reddening in the evening sun,
From far, the domes cf Syracuse!
When towards him comes Philostratus
(His leal and trusty herdsman he),
And to the master bends his knee.
"Back! thou canst aid thy friend no more; The niggard time already 's flownHis life is forfeit save thine own!
Hour after hour in hope he bore,
Nor might his soul its faith give o'er;
Nor could the tyrant's scorn, deriding,
Steal from that faith one thought confiding!'
"Too late! what horrors hast thou spoken!
Vain life, since it cannot requite him!
But death can yet with me unite him.
No boast the tyrant's scorn shall make
How friend to friend can faith forsake
But, from the double-death, shall know
That Truth and Love yet live below!
The sun sinks down the gate 's in view,
The cross looms dismal on the ground
The eager crowd gape murmuring round.
Lo! Pythias bound the cross unto!
When, crowd-guards — all — bursts Damon through,
"Me, doomsman!" shouts he,
His life is rescued -lo! mine own!'
Amazement seized the circling ring.
Linked in each other's arms the pair
Stood, thrilled with joy- yet anguish -
Moist every eye that gazed; they bring
The wondrous tidings to the king:
His breast man's heart at length has known,
And the friends stand before his throne:
Long silent he, and wondering, long
Gazed on the pair, then said: "Depart
Victors; ye have subdued my heart!
Truth is no dream! its power is strong!
Give grace to him who owns his wrong'
'Tis mine your suppliant now to be,
Ah, let the bond of Love hold THREE!"
THE BATTLE.—Translated from Schiller, by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. ·
HEAVY and solemn,
Through the green plain they marching came!
Measureless spread, like a table dread,
For the wild grim dice of the iron game,
Looks are bent on the shaking ground,
Hearts beat loud with a knelling sound;
Swift by the breasts that must bear the brunt,
Gallops the major along the front; -
And fettered they stand at the stark command,
And the warriors, silent, halt!
Proud in the blush of morning glowing,
What on the hill-top shines in flowing?
"God be with ye, children and wife!"
Hark to the music, the trump and the fife,
How they ring through the ranks, which they rouse to the strife'
Thrilling they sound, with their glorious tone,-
Thrilling they go through the marrow and bone!
Brothers, God grant, when this life is o'er,
In the life to come that we meet once more!
See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder!
Hark! the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thunder.
From host to host, with kindling sound,
The shouting signal circles round;
Ay, shout it forth to life or death, -
Freer already breathes the breath!
The war is waging, slaughter raging,
And heavy through the reeking pall
The iron death-dice fall!
Ready!"-from square to square it goes.
They kneel as one man, from flank to flank,
And the fire comes sharp from the foremost rank.
Many a soldier to earth is sent,
Many a gap by the balls is rent;
O'er the corse before springs the hinder man,
That the line may not fail to the fearless van.
To the right, to the left, and around and around,
Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground.
God's sunlight is quenched in the fiery fight,
Over the host falls a brooding night!
Brothers, God grant, when this life is o'er,
In the life to come that we meet once more!
The dead men lie bathed in the weltering blood,
And the living are blent in the slippery flood,
And the feet, as they reeling and sliding go,
Stumble still on the corses that sleep below.
"What! Francis! "Give Charlotte my last farewell."
As the dying man murmurs, the thunders swell.
"I'll give-O God! are their guns so near?
Ho! comrades! - yon volley! — look sharp to the rear
I'll give thy Charlotte thy last farewell;
Sleep soft! where death thickest descendeth in rain,
The friend thou forsakest thy side may regain!"
Hitherward, thitherward reels the fight;
Dark and more darkly day glooms into night,
Brothers, God grant, when this life is o'er,
In the life to come that we meet once more!
Hark to the hoofs that galloping go!
The adjutants flying,
The horsemen press hard on the panting for
Their thunder booms, in dying-
Terror has seized on the dastards all,
And their colors fall!
Closed is the brunt of the glorious fight;
And the day, like a conqueror, bursts on the night.
Trumpet and fife swelling choral along,
The triumph already sweeps marching in song
Farewell, fallen brothers; though this life be o'er,
There's another, in which we shall meet you once more!
BEFORE his lion-garden gate,
The wild-beast combat to await,
King Francis sate:
Around him were his nobles placed,
The balcony above was graced
By ladies of the court, in gorgeous
And as with his finger a sign he made,
The iron grating was open laid,
And with stately step and mien
A lion to enter was seen.
With fearful look
His mane he shook,
And yawning wide,
Stared around him on every side;
And stretched his giant limbs of strength,
And laid himself down at his fearful length
And the king a second signal made,-
And instant was opened wide
A second gate, on the other side,
From which, with fiery bound,
A tiger sprung.
Wildly the wild one yelled,
When the lion he beheld;
And, bristling at the look,
With his tail his sides he strook,
And rolled his rabid tongue.
And, with glittering eye,
Crept round the lion slow and shy
Then, horribly howling,
And grimly growling,
Down by his side himself he laid.
And the king another signal made :
The opened grating vomited then
Two leopards forth from their dreadful den,
They rush on the tiger, with signs of rage,
Eager the deadly fight to wage,
Who, fierce, with paws uplifted stood,
And the lion sprang up
Then were still the fearful four:
And the monsters on the ground
Crouched in a circle round,
Greedy to taste of blood.
Now, from the balcony above,
A snowy hand let fall a glove:
Midway between the beasts of prey,
Lion and tiger, there it lay,
The winsome lady's glove!
And the Lady Kunigund, in bantering mood,
Spoke to Knight Delorges, who by her stood:-
"If the flame which but now to me you swore
Burns as strong as it did before,
Go pick up my glove, Sir Knight."
And he, with action quick as sight,
In the horrible place did stand:
And with dauntless mien,
From the beasts between
Took up the glove, with fearless hand;
And as ladies and nobles the bold deed saw,
Their breath they held, through fear and awe.
The glove he brings back, composed and light.
His praise was announced by voice and look,
And Kunigund rose to receive the knight
With a smile that promised the deed to requite;
But straight in her face he flung the glove, -
"I neither desire your thanks nor love;"
And from that same hour the lady forsook.
25. THE FATE OF VIRGINIA.*
"WHY is the Forum crowded? What means this stir in Rome?" "Claimed as a slave, a free-born maid is dragged here from her home On fair Virginia, Claudius has cast his eye of blight;
The tyrant's creature, Marcus, asserts an owner's right.
O, shame on Roman manhood! Was ever plot more clear?
But, look! the maiden's father comes! Behold Virginius here!"
Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside,
To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide
Hard by a butcher on a block had laid his whittle down,
Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown.
* In order to render the commencement less abrupt, six lines of introduction have been added to this extract from the fine ballad by Macaulay.
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