The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 11

And now the Power of Good held victory.

So, through the labyrinth of many a tent, Among the silent millions who did lie _1740 In innocent sleep, exultingly I went; The moon had left Heaven desert now, but lent From eastern morn the first faint l.u.s.tre showed An armed youth--over his spear he bent His downward face.--'A friend!' I cried aloud, _1745 And quickly common hopes made freemen understood.

4.

I sate beside him while the morning beam Crept slowly over Heaven, and talked with him Of those immortal hopes, a glorious theme!

Which led us forth, until the stars grew dim: _1750 And all the while, methought, his voice did swim As if it drowned in remembrance were Of thoughts which make the moist eyes overbrim: At last, when daylight 'gan to fill the air, He looked on me, and cried in wonder--'Thou art here!' _1755

5.

Then, suddenly, I knew it was the youth In whom its earliest hopes my spirit found; But envious tongues had stained his spotless truth, And thoughtless pride his love in silence bound, And shame and sorrow mine in toils had wound, _1760 Whilst he was innocent, and I deluded; The truth now came upon me, on the ground Tears of repenting joy, which fast intruded, Fell fast, and o'er its peace our mingling spirits brooded.

6.

Thus, while with rapid lips and earnest eyes _1765 We talked, a sound of sweeping conflict spread As from the earth did suddenly arise; From every tent roused by that clamour dread, Our bands outsprung and seized their arms--we sped Towards the sound: our tribes were gathering far. _1770 Those sanguine slaves amid ten thousand dead Stabbed in their sleep, trampled in treacherous war The gentle hearts whose power their lives had sought to spare.

7.

Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child Who brings them food, when winter false and fair _1775 Allures them forth with its cold smiles, so wild They rage among the camp;--they overbear The patriot hosts--confusion, then despair, Descends like night--when 'Laon!' one did cry; Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shout did scare _1780 The slaves, and widening through the vaulted sky, Seemed sent from Earth to Heaven in sign of victory.

8.

In sudden panic those false murderers fled, Like insect tribes before the northern gale: But swifter still, our hosts encompa.s.sed _1785 Their shattered ranks, and in a craggy vale, Where even their fierce despair might nought avail, Hemmed them around!--and then revenge and fear Made the high virtue of the patriots fail: One pointed on his foe the mortal spear-- _1790 I rushed before its point, and cried 'Forbear, forbear!'

9.

The spear transfixed my arm that was uplifted In swift expostulation, and the blood Gushed round its point: I smiled, and--'Oh! thou gifted With eloquence which shall not be withstood, _1795 Flow thus!' I cried in joy, 'thou vital flood, Until my heart be dry, ere thus the cause For which thou wert aught worthy be subdued-- Ah, ye are pale,--ye weep,--your pa.s.sions pause,-- 'Tis well! ye feel the truth of love's benignant laws. _1800

10.

'Soldiers, our brethren and our friends are slain.

Ye murdered them, I think, as they did sleep!

Alas, what have ye done? the slightest pain Which ye might suffer, there were eyes to weep, But ye have quenched them--there were smiles to steep _1805 Your hearts in balm, but they are lost in woe; And those whom love did set his watch to keep Around your tents, truth's freedom to bestow, Ye stabbed as they did sleep--but they forgive ye now.

11.

'Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill, _1810 And pain still keener pain for ever breed?

We all are brethren--even the slaves who kill For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven! _1815 And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed And all that lives, or is, to be hath given, Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!

12.

'Join then your hands and hearts, and let the past Be as a grave which gives not up its dead _1820 To evil thoughts.'--A film then overcast My sense with dimness, for the wound, which bled Freshly, swift shadows o'er mine eyes had shed.

When I awoke, I lay mid friends and foes, And earnest countenances on me shed _1825 The light of questioning looks, whilst one did close My wound with balmiest herbs, and soothed me to repose;

13.

And one whose spear had pierced me, leaned beside With quivering lips and humid eyes;--and all Seemed like some brothers on a journey wide _1830 Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall In a strange land, round one whom they might call Their friend, their chief, their father, for a.s.say Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array _1835 Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day.

14.

Lifting the thunder of their acclamation, Towards the City then the mult.i.tude, And I among them, went in joy--a nation Made free by love;--a mighty brotherhood _1840 Linked by a jealous interchange of good; A glorious pageant, more magnificent Than kingly slaves arrayed in gold and blood, When they return from carnage, and are sent In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement. _1845

15.

Afar, the city-walls were thronged on high, And myriads on each giddy turret clung, And to each spire far lessening in the sky Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung; As we approached, a shout of joyance sprung _1850 At once from all the crowd, as if the vast And peopled Earth its boundless skies among The sudden clamour of delight had cast, When from before its face some general wreck had pa.s.sed.

16.

Our armies through the City's hundred gates _1855 Were poured, like brooks which to the rocky lair Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits, Throng from the mountains when the storms are there And, as we pa.s.sed through the calm sunny air A thousand flower-inwoven crowns were shed, _1860 The token flowers of truth and freedom fair, And fairest hands bound them on many a head, Those angels of love's heaven that over all was spread.

17.

I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision: Those b.l.o.o.d.y bands so lately reconciled, _1865 Were, ever as they went, by the contrition Of anger turned to love, from ill beguiled, And every one on them more gently smiled, Because they had done evil:--the sweet awe Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow mild, _1870 And did with soft attraction ever draw Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.

18.

And they, and all, in one loud symphony My name with Liberty commingling, lifted, 'The friend and the preserver of the free! _1875 The parent of this joy!' and fair eyes gifted With feelings, caught from one who had uplifted The light of a great spirit, round me shone; And all the shapes of this grand scenery shifted Like restless clouds before the steadfast sun,-- _1880 Where was that Maid? I asked, but it was known of none.

19.

Laone was the name her love had chosen, For she was nameless, and her birth none knew: Where was Laone now?--The words were frozen Within my lips with fear; but to subdue _1885 Such dreadful hope, to my great task was due, And when at length one brought reply, that she To-morrow would appear, I then withdrew To judge what need for that great throng might be, For now the stars came thick over the twilight sea. _1890

20.

Yet need was none for rest or food to care, Even though that mult.i.tude was pa.s.sing great, Since each one for the other did prepare All kindly succour--Therefore to the gate Of the Imperial House, now desolate, _1895 I pa.s.sed, and there was found aghast, alone, The fallen Tyrant!--Silently he sate Upon the footstool of his golden throne, Which, starred with sunny gems, in its own l.u.s.tre shone.

21.

Alone, but for one child, who led before him _1900 A graceful dance: the only living thing Of all the crowd, which thither to adore him Flocked yesterday, who solace sought to bring In his abandonment!--She knew the King Had praised her dance of yore, and now she wove _1905 Its circles, aye weeping and murmuring Mid her sad task of unregarded love, That to no smiles it might his speechless sadness move.

22.

She fled to him, and wildly clasped his feet When human steps were heard:--he moved nor spoke, _1910 Nor changed his hue, nor raised his looks to meet The gaze of strangers--our loud entrance woke The echoes of the hall, which circling broke The calm of its recesses,--like a tomb Its sculptured walls vacantly to the stroke _1915 Of footfalls answered, and the twilight's gloom Lay like a charnel's mist within the radiant dome.

23.

The little child stood up when we came nigh; Her lips and cheeks seemed very pale and wan, But on her forehead, and within her eye _1920 Lay beauty, which makes hearts that feed thereon Sick with excess of sweetness; on the throne She leaned;--the King, with gathered brow, and lips Wreathed by long scorn, did inly sneer and frown With hue like that when some great painter dips _1925 His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.

24.

She stood beside him like a rainbow braided Within some storm, when scarce its shadows vast From the blue paths of the swift sun have faded; A sweet and solemn smile, like Cythna's, cast _1930 One moment's light, which made my heart beat fast, O'er that child's parted lips--a gleam of bliss, A shade of vanished days,--as the tears pa.s.sed Which wrapped it, even as with a father's kiss I pressed those softest eyes in trembling tenderness. _1935

25.

The sceptred wretch then from that solitude I drew, and, of his change compa.s.sionate, With words of sadness soothed his rugged mood.

But he, while pride and fear held deep debate, With sullen guile of ill-dissembled hate _1940 Glared on me as a toothless snake might glare: Pity, not scorn I felt, though desolate The desolator now, and unaware The curses which he mocked had caught him by the hair.

26.

I led him forth from that which now might seem _1945 A gorgeous grave: through portals sculptured deep With imagery beautiful as dream We went, and left the shades which tend on sleep Over its unregarded gold to keep Their silent watch.--The child trod faintingly, _1950 And as she went, the tears which she did weep Glanced in the starlight; wildered seemed she, And, when I spake, for sobs she could not answer me.

27.

At last the tyrant cried, 'She hungers, slave!

Stab her, or give her bread!'--It was a tone _1955 Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave Might hear. I trembled, for the truth was known; He with this child had thus been left alone, And neither had gone forth for food,--but he In mingled pride and awe cowered near his throne, _1960 And she a nursling of captivity Knew nought beyond those walls, nor what such change might be.

28.

And he was troubled at a charm withdrawn Thus suddenly; that sceptres ruled no more-- That even from gold the dreadful strength was gone, _1965 Which once made all things subject to its power-- Such wonder seized him, as if hour by hour The past had come again; and the swift fall Of one so great and terrible of yore, To desolateness, in the hearts of all _1970 Like wonder stirred, who saw such awful change befall.

29.

A mighty crowd, such as the wide land pours Once in a thousand years, now gathered round The fallen tyrant;--like the rush of showers Of hail in spring, pattering along the ground, _1975 Their many footsteps fell, else came no sound From the wide mult.i.tude: that lonely man Then knew the burden of his change, and found, Concealing in the dust his visage wan, Refuge from the keen looks which through his bosom ran. _1980

30.

And he was faint withal: I sate beside him Upon the earth, and took that child so fair From his weak arms, that ill might none betide him Or her;--when food was brought to them, her share To his averted lips the child did bear, _1985 But, when she saw he had enough, she ate And wept the while;--the lonely man's despair Hunger then overcame, and of his state Forgetful, on the dust as in a trance he sate.

31.

Slowly the silence of the mult.i.tudes _1990 Pa.s.sed, as when far is heard in some lone dell The gathering of a wind among the woods-- 'And he is fallen!' they cry, 'he who did dwell Like famine or the plague, or aught more fell Among our homes, is fallen! the murderer _1995 Who slaked his thirsting soul as from a well Of blood and tears with ruin! he is here!

Sunk in a gulf of scorn from which none may him rear!'

32.

Then was heard--'He who judged let him be brought To judgement! blood for blood cries from the soil _2000 On which his crimes have deep pollution wrought!

Shall Othman only unavenged despoil?

Shall they who by the stress of grinding toil Wrest from the unwilling earth his luxuries, Perish for crime, while his foul blood may boil, _2005 Or creep within his veins at will?--Arise!

And to high justice make her chosen sacrifice!'