Stories in Verse Part 8

THE VISIT OF DEMETRIUS AND HIS TEN FRIENDS.

So two lives, like confluent rivers, were unkindly torn apart; One to slide through fruited gardens, longing vainly for the sea, One to purl 'neath ample bridges, bearing cargoes to the mart, But ever dreaming fondly of a meeting yet to be.

And I labored; and my gains accrued and doubled in my hand, For Fortune having given once will give us more and more; I was like a stranger pa.s.sing through some long neglected land, Who finds beneath each stone he turns a wedge of golden ore.

And I studied, learned all secrets that the wisest books can teach; Gained the Greek verb's long persistent root at last by prying hard; Found a natural foreknowledge of the rules and forms of speech, And drank the fountain water from the words of Scio's bard.

All my ships had favoring breezes, not one sank or went ash.o.r.e; The very fat of commerce oozed between their pitchy seams; And a block of serried buildings did not half contain my store, While my lavish, thrifty bargains would have dimmed Aladdin's dreams.

Still I changed not my apparel, still I wore my bezan robe, Still I donned the self-same turban with its frayed and faded red; I would have no other garb then had I owned the whirling globe; Better rich to wear a tatter, than poor, wear silk, I said.

Daily from my mullioned window flew a pigeon in the air, And beneath its wing lay folded lines for her I loved the best; Daily from her palace window it returned and brought me there, Rhymeless idyls full of heart-speech, faithful ardors of her breast.

Ah, dear love, she waited patiently with mournful, longing eyes, Like the moon she waited nightly for the cloud to pa.s.s her brow; Like the birds she waited daily for the coming in the skies Of the other bringing succor to the hunger on the bough.

And all wealth was lost upon her, for she had to look upon Art's own pictures, Spring-time raptures, Autumn clad in ballet mist; And she dined on sweets and spices, coffee, bread and cinnamon, While they shook perfumes about her, or her cushioned slippers kissed.

Down her back her hair, unfastened from its jeweled comb of gold, Wasted fragrance, seemed a cascade plunging down a deep ravine; Seemed the black wing of a raven who had ventured overbold, And was perched upon her forehead that its beauty might be seen.

Every day in milk she bathed her, till at last she was as white; Dyed with almond kohl her eyelids, and her nails with henna tinged; Supped on amber wine and honey; but she tasted no delight.

She slept 'neath silken curtains with musk-scented laces fringed.

But at last the ready day came, that my hopes had longed to meet, When I cast aside the tatters I had worn for many years, And arrayed my perfect person from my head down to my feet, With the garments that became me, with the velvet of my peers.

Then I bought me restless chargers, Ukraine steeds, five white, six black; The eleventh was the n.o.blest, yet the gentlest of all; And a friend I had who loved me to bestride each horse's back-- Ten friends of handsome presence, smooth demeanor, strong, and tall.

Every friend I gave a cloak to, purple velvet ermine-bound; Every charger was caparisoned--the harness wrought with gold.

At high noon we started gayly, and the palace entrance found; And I sought the statesman Yorghi with a purpose to unfold.

I had come to wed his daughter; all her heart had long been mine; I had won her when a beggar, but I loved her more and more Now that my wealth was boundless--it but strengthened my design; If he gave her I would cede him half my fortune, store on store.

In my face he laughed, me scorning, and despised me and my part-- Called me still a beggar wealthy, and bade me turn away; Said Eudocia was his daughter--he knew nothing of her heart; He had pledged her hand and fortune to my ruler, Ahmed Bey.

There are times when our resentment centres solely in a glance, When our feelings burn too deeply for effectiveness in speech; Such a look I gave to Yorghi as I led out in advance, While my ten friends followed after with brave consolation each.

IV.

DEMETRIUS FOR EUDOCIA BETRAYS CONSTANTINE.

Now a war like distant thunder muttered in the darkened air; In the sky a fowl of omen hovered o'er to rob our graves; And men, like birds affrighted, hurried homeward in despair.

We heard the tramp of armies like the far-off march of waves.

War a pestilent disease is on the body of the world-- A disease that sometimes purges, but still leaves the victim sore; And no potent drug will cure it until Liberty has furled All the standards of the nations, and shall rule for evermore.

What availed my marble buildings where I bartered for my gold?

All my gains were vainly gotten, for Eudocia was not mine.

Then my goods I turned to money, all my ships and houses sold, And sent the glittering product far away from Constantine.

On us like a wild hawk swooping came Damremont with his men; But we saw his wing-like banners and we closed and barred the gates; All the women urged to battle; every man a hero then; And the Kabyles based reliance on the friendship of the Fates.

I held that love of country was a higher love of self, With generous ends, but selfish still, whatever might be said; I forgot my boasted honor; I had garnered all my pelf; I became a hissing traitor to the land I owed my bread.

All was plain; if I was faithful, then Eudocia was lost; Recreant, and gaining victory, I could claim her as my right.

I scarcely weighed the balance, and I dared not count the cost; I stole out from the city to the alien camp that night.

I was loyal to the purpose that within my heart was shrined; Another might have coped with it, and triumphed o'er its fall.

So men are, they do not vary much, the level of mankind, What one lacks the next possesses; there are faults enough in all.

Down the cliff I slipped in silence; and the troubled cypress leaves Quivered like sweet lips in anguish, while the star eyes wept with dew; And I sought the French commander, where, amid his musket sheaves, He sat and planned new reaping in a field that Azrael knew.

"I have come to bring a.s.sistance, if you take my terms," I said, "For I know the weakest portion of the city's scowling wall.

There's a maiden named Eudocia I would sell my soul to wed; Give me the right to have her, and I freely tell you all."

Then he smiled across his table as he granted my desire-- Smile of memory begotten, some remembrance of delight-- And he heard my story quietly, but said he would require Me to go into the city as a spy the coming night.

V.

THE MASKED SPY IN THE PALACE.

Years before, a secret entrance 'neath the wall I ordered made; And they were dead who built it, so none knew of it but me.

When the darkness came I gained it, and softly in the shade, Pa.s.sed through lone streets of the city where the battle was to be.

A purse of gold and rubies bought the whispered countersign, And with its aid I noted place and number of the troops.

I chalked upon a building: _Lo, the doom of Constantine!

There's a traitor in the city, and the populace are dupes._

In the street I met a masker hurrying onward through the night, And something in his bearing told of one I called a friend.

"Sir," I said, and on his shoulder I had laid my finger quite, "Tell me why you mask your visage, and whereto your footsteps tend."

By my voice he knew me quickly, and removed his mask to say: "My footsteps seek the palace; have you heard not of the fete?

In three days old Yorghi's daughter is to wed with Ahmed Bey; To-night the plighting party; I must hasten; it is late."

"Hold," I said, "you care but little for the pleasure that you seek; Give to me your mask and vesture, and so let me take your place; I shall not hold the favor lightly, but shall pay you in a week With a sapphire for each moment; and they will not see my face."

Then we found his wide apartments, where we changed the robes we wore.

I put on the half fantastic silken garments and the mask, Then sallied down the stair-way till I gained the street once more; Dreaming only of Eudocia, in whose presence I should bask.

From foundation to entablature the palace shone with light, And I fancied it a genii with a hundred fiery eyes; His mouth the yawning door-way, and a cloud across the night Seemed the hair upon his forehead, blowing in the windy skies.

Quick he gorged me, for I entered, and heard at once the swell Of the music--heard the dancing girls with bells about their feet; The odor of a hundred blooms upon my senses fell; The magnolia seemed the husband, and the rest his consorts sweet.

To a splendid hall a eunuch led me down a damask floor, And the guests were all a.s.sembled in their beauty and their pride.

With standards and with banners the walls were garnished o'er.

The Bey among the maskers led the lily by his side.

Round a fountain, in the centre of the golden burnished room, Danced the dancers, played the players, to the cadence of its fall, While out upon the balcony, amid the vernal gloom, A nightingale was singing, and with sadness mocked us all.

VI.