But now you see what silly fragile creature
Cowers thus. I am not good nor bad enough,
Not Christ, nor Cain, yet even Cain was saved
From hate like this: let me but totter back,
Perhaps I shall elude those jeers which creep
Into my very brain, and shut these scorched
Eyelids, and keep those mocking faces out.
Listen, Aprile! I am very calm :
Be not deceived, there is no passion here,
Where the blood leaps like an imprisoned thing.
I am calm: I will exterminate the race!
Enough of that: 'tis said and it shall be.
And now be merry-safe and sound am I,
Who broke through their best ranks to get at you;
And such a havoc, such a rout, Aprile!
Fest. Have you no thought, no memory for me, Aureole? I am so wretched-my pure Michal gone, and you alone are left to me,
And even you forget me: take my hand
Lean on me, thus. Do you not know me, Aureole ? Par. Festus, my own friend, you are come at last? As you say, 'tis an awful enterprise—
But you believe I shall go through with it :
'Tis like you, and I thank you; thank him for me, Dear Michal! See how bright St. Saviour's spire Flames in the sunset; all its figures quaint
Gay in the glancing light: you might conceive them A troop of yellow-vested, white-haired Jews,
Bound for their own land where redemption dawns !
Fest. Not that blest time-not our youth's time, dear
Par. Ha-stay! true, I forget-all is done since!
And he is come to judge me: how he speaks,
How calm, how well! yes, it is true, all true;
All quackery; all deceit! myself can laugh
The first at it, if you desire: but still
You know the obstacles which taught me tricks
So foreign to my nature-envy, and hate-
Blind opposition-brutal prejudice-
Bald ignorance-what wonder if I sunk
To humour men the way they most approved?
My cheats were never palmed on such as you,
Dear Festus! I will kneel if you require me,
Impart the meagre knowledge I possess,
Explain its bounded nature, and avow
My insufficiency-whate'er you will:
I give the fight up! let there be an end,
A privacy, an obscure nook for me.
I want to be forgotten even by God!
But if that cannot be, dear Festus, lay me,
When I shall die, within some narrow grave,
Not by itself for that would be too proud-
But where such graves are thickest; let it look
Nowise distinguished from the hillocks round,
So that the peasant at his brother's bed
May tread upon my own and know it not;
And we shall all be equal at the last,
Or classed according to life's natural ranks,
Fathers, sons, brothers, friends—not rich, nor wise,
Nor gifted: lay me thus, then say "He lived
"Too much advanced before his brother men :
"They kept him still in front; 'twas for their good,
"But yet a dangerous station. It were strange
"That he should tell God he had never ranked
"With men so, here at least he is a man!"
Fest. That God shall take thee to his breast, dear Spirit,
Unto his breast, be sure! and here on earth
Shall splendour sit upon thy name forever!
Sun! all the heaven is glad for thee: what care
If lower mountains light their snowy phares
At thine effulgence, yet acknowledge not
The source of day? Men look up to the sun: ·
For after-ages shall retrack thy beams,
And put aside the crowd of busy ones,
And worship thee alone-the master-mind,
The thinker, the explorer, the creator!
Then, who should sneer at the convulsive throes
With which thy deeds were born, would scorn as well
The winding sheet of subterraneous fire
Which, pent and writhing, sends no less at last
Huge islands up amid the simmering sea!
Behold thy might in me! thou hast infused
Thy soul in mine; and I am grand as thou,
Seeing I comprehend thee-I so simple,
Thou so august! I recognize thee first;
I saw thee rise, I watched thee early and late,
And though no glance reveal thou dost accept
My homage thus no less I proffer it,
And bid thee enter gloriously thy rest!
Par. Festus !
I am for noble Aureole, God!
I am upon his side, come weal or woe!
His portion shall be mine! He has done well!
I would have sinned, had I been strong enough,
As he has sinned! Reward him or I waive
Reward! If thou canst find no place for him
He shall be king elsewhere, and I will be
His slave forever! There are two of us!
Par. Dear Festus!
Here, dear Aureole! ever by you!
Speak on!
Par. Nay, speak on, or I dream again.
Some story, any thing-only your voice.
I shall dream else. Speak on! ay, leaning so!
Fest. Softly the Mayne river glideth
Close by where my love abideth;
Sleep's no softer: it proceeds
On through lawns, on through meads,
On and on, whate'er befall,
Meandering and musical,
Though the niggard pasture's edge
Bears not on its shaven ledge
Aught but weeds and waving grasses
To view the river as it passes,
Save here and there a scanty patch
Of primroses, too faint to catch
A weary bee...
Its gentle way through strangling rushes,
Where the glossy kingfisher
Flutters when noon-heats are near,
Glad the shelving banks to shun,
Red and steaming in the sun,
Where the shrew-mouse with pale throat
Burrows, and the speckled stoat,
Where the quick sand-pipers flit
In and out the marl and grit
That seems to breed them, brown as they.
Nought disturbs the river's way,
Save some lazy stork that springs,
Trailing it with legs and wings,
Whom the shy fox from the hill
Rouses, creep he ne'er so still.
Par. My heart, they loose my heart, those simple words;
Its darkness passes, which nought else could touch;
Like some dark snake that force may not expel,
Which glideth out to music sweet and low.
What were you doing when your voice broke through A chaos of ugly images? You, indeed!
An unexceptionable vault
Good brick and stone-the bats kept out, the rats
Kept in a snug nook: how should I mistake it?
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