Stories in Verse Part 9

THE MEETING IN THE GARDEN, AND THE FLIGHT OF THE SPY.

When the Bey pa.s.sed by me graciously, I whispered in the ear Of the one he led beside him (should I fail to win her yet!) "Our day is at its dawning; I, Demetrius, am here; Meet me yonder in the garden, at the place where once we met."

There she followed very quickly, and I held her to my heart, And kissed with fervid kisses all her lips and throat and chin.

Here she longed to dwell forever so that we might never part, And be fed with many kisses my enfolding arms within.

There the amorous stars out-twinkled; and anear, a sordid lake, Like a miser, hugged the silver of their glitter to its breast; And it stayed within the closet of the trees and tangled brake, Lest some fortunate bold robber should steal from it in its rest.

Now the years had changed Eudocia from the rosebud to the rose, Made more perfect every feature, added many a gentle grace, And she made my heart her garden, there to dwell and find repose: Neither time, nor change, nor absence, could her love for me efface.

She said she too would be a lakelet, 'neath the starlight of my eyes; And when my lips bent downward she would catch their spicy dew; My face, low bending over, should become her tender skies, And my arms the goodly verdure that about the margin grew.

I dared not risk to tell her of the traitor she was near; I said the Bey would tremble when I came to claim her hand; I said that she must wait me, and despair not; but have cheer, For my triumph would be public in the corners of the land.

While we spoke we heard commotion in the palace down the hill; Gay lights swung in the distance, like red fire-flies in a glen; Call by call was heard and answered with a herd of echoes shrill, And we saw a score of torches, and the issuing forth of men.

"Love, they seek you," cried Eudocia; "you must go or you must die."

But sad, O, sad the sundering of two hearts who long and weep; Rent the oak's tough, knitted fibre by the lightning from on high; But the hearts will cling the closer that apart they strive to keep.

On her lips I kissed my tears in, on her lips and on her eyes Which she opened only languidly to show her answering tears, And I kissed the diamond crescent that I saw sink down and rise, While it flashed upon the torches with a hundred silver spears.

Swooning, on a seat I laid her, then sped quickly through the gloom, While a torchman pa.s.sed so near me that I fancied I was seen; But I hid me for a moment 'neath a bush of liberal bloom, Then fled onward to my entrance through the streets that intervene.

Above, an imminent meteor flashed westward 'gainst the night,-- A full moon with a bluer glow, and trailed with ruby shine; It seemed a blazing torch to me, borne onward with the flight Of a spirit, that beneath it, brought defeat to Constantine.

VII.

THE BATTLE.

To the town outspoke the cannon, ere the dawn charged on the night, Not of peace and joy and amity, but of hatred and despair, And a thousand blatant bugles proved it waiting for their spite; And we heard the rasp of bullets in the dark astonished air.

When the sun rose, hot and b.l.o.o.d.y, all the fight had well begun; The artillery were pounding at the weak place in the wall; While the smoke, from vale and city, seemed the melancholy, dun Robes of spirits hovering over for the fated ones to fall.

Like a strong Numidian lion, on her rock the city lay, Nothing daunted though surrounded, and with scanty store of bread; Her fierce eyes, two flags of crimson, stared through battle all the day, One on Babel Wad's high key-stone, and one on Babel Djed.

Round these gates they set their sworders, hoping thence to drive us back When we followed up their sallies, which were baits to make us come; But in vain, our works were safer, though we longed for the attack, And eagerly awaited for the summons of the drum.

Stone by stone a breach was opened in the thin place in the wall, Till at last we sent a truce flag to the gate of Babel Djed, Saying to the town, "Surrender, Constantine must surely fall; If you fail, no soul remaining shall be left to count your dead."

Like a sword-thrust was the answer, "There is plenty in the place Both of food and ammunition; if 'tis these the French desire, We can furnish them abundance; but surrender means disgrace, And our homes shall be defended while one soldier stands to fire."

Should not this town be captured, every man must bear the fault, And many a one bethought him of his own in sunny France.

Down our line there ran the murmur, "We must take it by a.s.sault,"

And we heard the bugles playing for the stormers to advance.

Like great billows never breaking were the rocks of Constantine, And a cargoed ship the city with its keel in every one; She was sailing for the future with the barter of the line, And her mast-like towers were gaudy with the pennons of the sun.

But now a storm had struck her, and a hole was in her side, And the waters rushed in wildly while she paused upon the brink.

All in vain each brave endeavor; for all on board her tried To close the leak with fury, that the vessel might not sink.

Our men the angry waters that could not be turned nor checked, And they bore all straws before them in their mad impetuous way.

So the town, betrayed, was captured; so the great ship had been wrecked; And with the troops in triumph I rode in upon that day.

VIII.

THE WEDDING AND THE FALSE FRIEND.

When the night fell, in the palace all the lights were lit again.

In the hall of silken standards and of Persia-woven mats There were women fair as houris, there were brave and handsome men; And the fish leaped up to see them from the fountain's silver vats.

Never yet so fair Eudocia, and she won the wisest praise From the aliens there a.s.sembled to behold our marriage rite; Not alone her queenly beauty; but the grace of all her ways, Drew all hearts and eyes toward her, filled like cups with pure delight.

But while yet they said the service, and ere yet I placed the ring On her tapering heart finger, all the crowd was parted wide, And I saw my friend the masker his unasked-for presence bring To the pollen of the wedding, lady-petaled on each side.

"Thus shall die the thankless traitor, whether king or beggar he!"

And a dagger gleamed above us with a fierce glare at the light, Then was struck upon my bosom near the place the heart might be, And my false friend, through the people, hastened wildly in his flight.

But the mad bee gained no honey in his hurry to depart; His sting had been well pointed, but his villainy was loss, For I wore, with faith, a secret, o'er the throbbing of my heart, The symbol of a higher life, a simple silver Cross.

This had turned aside the weapon and spared me many years For one whose heart has been to me a holy pilgrim shrine, For one for whom I gave away with bitterness and tears The city of Jugurtha, my own mother Constantine.

We dwell now in a palace near the white surge of a bay; But at times my good steed wanders, and in the twilight late, I find me near my city, while the muezzin in the gray, Shouts, "To prayer, to prayer, ye people, only G.o.d is good and great!"

THE STRONG SPIDER.

I.

THE CHIEF'S DAUGHTER.

I was a naturalist, and had crossed the sea And come to Theodosia, to find A monstrous spider of which I had heard.

The people of the town wagged doubting heads, When asked about it; but one day I met A st.u.r.dy fisherman who once had seen The spider, though he knew not his abode.

He said the spider was as long as he, And that the woof whereof he wove his web, Was thick as any cordage on his boat.

At night, belated 'mid the tumuli That mound the hill-side and the vernal vale, Like the raised letters of an ancient page Made for the blind gropers of to-day to read, He entered a dark tomb, and therein slept, Until the world, like some round shield upraised, Splintered the thrown spears of dawn. As he woke, He found himself ensnared in some thick web, Yet reached his knife, and slowly cut it through; Then when he stood, a monstrous spider fled.

At this recital on the slanted sh.o.r.e, Another joined us from the cottage near-- A vine-clad cottage, lit for love's abode.

A lily-croft, with trees, encinctured it; Like Ahab in his house of ivory Dining on sweets, the king bee here Sipped in the snowy lily's palace hall; And here were yellow lilies strewn about, As though the place had been the banquet grove Of Shishak, king of Egypt; for the flowers Seemed like the cups of gold that Solomon Wrought for the holy service of the Lord.

"This is my daughter," said the fisherman.

Her head and face were covered with a scarf, But large dark eyes looked forth, and in their depths I saw a soul all tenderness and truth.

(Often, in dreams, I thought it sweet to die, And reft of this gross vision, see at last, As the large soul, quit of the body can, Another soul set free and purified.)

The modest maid a crimson jacket wore, And to her knee the broidered skirt hung down; While 'neath, the Turkish garment was confined In plaits about the ankles; but her shoes Revealed the naked insteps of her feet.

I bade her there adieu, upon the sh.o.r.e Of the clear Bospore. As I wandered back, I thought much of the spider that I sought; But more of two dark eyes, that seemed two stars Which shone down in my heart; while the far s.p.a.ce Behind them, pure, but unknown, was the soul.

I thought to test this maiden's charity; And so, one friendly day, put on a robe Tattered and soiled with use. As she went by, I strode abruptly from behind a wall, And faced her with a face disguised, and held My hand out while I begged for some small alms.

She gave abundantly from her lean purse, And with a look of tender pity, pa.s.sed.

It matters little who it is that asks, Or whether he deserves the alms or not; That given with free heart, is given to G.o.d, And not to him who takes.