Poems by Adam Lindsay Gordon Part 35

Orion: Your eyes are hollow, your step is slow, And your cheek is pallid as though from toil, Watching or fasting, by which I know That you have been burning the midnight oil.

Hugo: Aye, three nights running.

Orion: 'Twill never do To travel all day, and study all night; Will you join in a gallop through mist and dew, In a flight that may vie with the eagle's flight?

Hugo: With all my heart. Shall we saddle "Rollo"?

Orion: Nay, leave him undisturb'd in his stall; I have steeds he would hardly care to follow.

Hugo: Follow, forsooth! he can lead them all.

Orion: Touching his merits we will not quarrel; But let me mount you for once; enough Of work may await your favourite sorrel, And the paths we must traverse to-night are rough.

But first let me mix you a beverage, To invigorate your enfeebled frame.

[He mixes a draught and hands it to Hugo.]

All human ills this draught can a.s.suage.

Hugo: It hisses and glows like liquid flame; Say, what quack nostrum is this thou'st brewed?

Speak out; I am learned in the chemist's lore.

Orion: There is nothing but what will do you good; And the drugs are simples; 'tis h.e.l.lebore, Nepenthe, upas, and dragon's blood, Absinthe, and mandrake, and mandragore.

Hugo: I will drink it, although, by ma.s.s and rood, I am just as wise as I was before.

SCENE--A Rough, Hilly Country.

HUGO and ORION riding at speed on black horses.

Mountains in the distance. Night.

Hugo: See! the sparks that fly from our hoof-strokes make A fiery track that gleams in our wake; Like a dream the dim landscape past us shoots, Our horses fly.

Orion: They are useful brutes, Though somewhat skittish; the foam is whit'ning The crest and rein of my courser "Lightning"; He pulls to-night, being short of work, And takes his head with a sudden jerk; Still heel and steady hand on the bit, For that is "Tempest" on which you sit.

Hugo: 'Tis the bravest steed that ever I back'd; Did'st mark how he crossed yon cataract?

From hoof to hoof I should like to measure The s.p.a.ce he clear'd.

Orion: He can clear at leisure A greater distance. Observe the chasm We are nearing. Ha! did you feel a spasm As we flew over it?

Hugo: Not at all.

Orion: Nathless 'twas an ugly place for a fall.

Hugo: Let us try a race to yon mountain high, That rears its dusky peak 'gainst the sky.

Orion: I won't disparage your horsemanship, But your steed will stand neither spur nor whip, And is hasty and hard to steer at times.

We must travel far ere the midnight chimes; We must travel back ere the east is grey.

Ho! "Lightning"! "Tempest"! Away! Away!

[They ride on faster.]

SCENE--A Peak in a Mountainous Country Overhanging a Rocky Pa.s.s.

HUGO and ORION on black horses. Midnight.

Hugo: These steeds are sprung from no common race, Their vigour seems to annihilate s.p.a.ce; What hast thou brought me here to see?

Orion: No boisterous scene of unhallow'd glee, No sabbat of witches coa.r.s.e and rude, But a mystic and musical interlude; You have long'd to explore the scrolls of Fate, Dismount, as I do, and listen and wait.

[They dismount.]

Orion (chanting): Spirits of earth, and air, and sea, Spirits unclean, and spirits untrue, By the symbols three that shall nameless be, One of your masters calls on you.

Spirits (chanting in the distance): From the bowels of earth, where gleams the gold; From the air where the powers of darkness hold Their court; from the white sea-foam, Whence the white rose-tinted G.o.ddess sprung, Whom poets of every age have sung, Ever we come! we come!

Hugo: How close to our ears the thunder peals!

How the earth beneath us shudders and reels!

A Voice (chanting): Woe to the earth! Where men give death!

And women give birth!

To the sons of Adam, by Cain or Seth!

Plenty and dearth!

To the daughters of Eve, who toil and spin, Barren of worth!

Let them sigh, and sicken, and suffer sin!

Woe to the earth!

Hugo: What is yon phantom large and dim That over the mountain seems to swim?

Orion: 'Tis the scarlet woman of Babylon!

Hugo: Whence does she come? Where has she gone?

And who is she?

Orion: You would know too much; These are subjects on which I dare not touch; And if I were to try and enlighten you, I should probably fail, and possibly frighten you.

You had better ask some learned divine, Whose opinion is p'rhaps worth as much as mine, In his own conceit; and who, besides, Could tell you the brand of the beast she rides.

What can you see in the valley yonder?

Speak out; I can hear you, for all the thunder.

Hugo: I see four shadowy altars rise, They seem to swell and dilate in size; Larger and clearer now they loom, Now fires are lighting them through the gloom.

A Voice (chanting): The first a golden-hued fire shows, A blood-red flame on the second glows, The blaze on the third is tinged like the rose, From the fourth a column of black smoke goes.

Orion: Can you see all this?

Hugo: I see and hear; The lights and hues are vivid and clear.

Spirits (sing at the first altar): Hail, Mammon! while man buys and barters, Thy kingdom in this world is sure; Thy prophets thou hast and thy martyrs, Great things in thy name they endure; Thy fetters of gold crush the miser, The usurer bends at thy shrine, And the wealthier nations and the wiser Bow with us at this altar of thine.

Spirits (sing at the second altar): Hail, Moloch! whose banner floats blood-red, From pole to equator unfurl'd, Whose laws redly written have stood red, And shall stand while standeth this world; Clad in purple, with thy diadem gory, Thy sceptre the blood-dripping steel, Thy subjects with us give thee glory, With us at thine altar they kneel.