‘And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary
Is violate, our laws broken: fear we not
To break them more in their behoof, whose arms
Champion’d our cause and won it with a day
Blanch’d in our annals, and perpetual feast,
When dames and heroines of the golden year
Shall strip a hundred hollows bare of Spring,
To rain an April of ovation round
Their statues, borne aloft, the three: but come,
We will be liberal, since our rights are won.
Let them not lie in the tents with coarse mankind,
Ill nurses: but descend, and proffer these
The brethren of our blood and cause, that there
Lie bruised and maim’d, the tender ministries
Of female hands and hospitality.’
She spoke, and with the babe yet in her arms,
Descending, burst the great bronze valves, and led
A hundred maids in train across the Park.
Some cowl’d, and some bare-headed, on they came,
Their feet in flowers, her loveliest: by them went
The enamour’d air sighing, and on their curls
From the high tree the blossom wavering fell,
And over them the tremulous isles of light
Slided, they moving under shade: but Blanche
At distance follow’d: so they came: anon
Thro’ open field into the lists they wound
Timorously: and as the leader of the herd
That holds a stately fretwork to the Sun,
And follow’d up by a hundred airy does,
Steps with a tender foot, light as on air,
The lovely, lordly creature floated on
To where her wounded brethren lay; there stay’d;
Knelt on one knee,—the child on one—and prest
Their hands, and call’d them dear deliverers,
And happy warriors, and immortal names,
And said ‘You shall not lie in the tents but here,
And nursed by those for whom you fought, and served
With female hands and hospitality.’
Then, whether moved by this, or was it chance,
She past my way. Up started from my side
The old lion, glaring with his whelpless eye,
Silent: but when she saw me lying stark,
Dishelm’d and mute, and motionlessly pale,
Cold ev’n to her, she sigh’d; and when she saw
The haggard father’s face and reverent beard
Of grisly twine, all dabbled with the blood
Of his own son, shudder’d, a twitch of pain
Tortured her mouth, and o’er her forehead past
A shadow, and her hue changed, and she said:
‘He saved my life: my brother slew him for it.’
No more: at which the king in bitter scorn
Drew from my neck the painting and the tress,
And held them up: she saw them, and a day
Rose from the distance on her memory,
When the good Queen, her mother, shore the tress
With kisses, ere the days of Lady Blanche:
And then once more she look’d at my pale face:
Till understanding all the foolish work
Of Fancy, and the bitter close of all,
Her iron will was broken in her mind;
Her noble heart was molten in her breast;
She bow’d, she set the child on the earth; she laid
A feeling finger on my brows, and presently
‘O Sire,’ she said, ‘he lives: he is not dead:
O let me have him with my brethren here
In our own palace: we will tend on him
Like one of these; if so, by any means,
To lighten this great clog of thanks, that make
Our progress falter to the woman’s goal.’
She said: but at the happy word ‘he lives’
My father stoop’d, re-father’d o’er my wounds.
So those two foes above my fallen life,
With brow to brow like night and evening mixt
Their dark and gray, while Psyche ever stole
A little nearer, till the babe that by us,
Half-lapt in glowing gauze and golden brede,
Lay like a new-fall’n meteor on the grass,
Uncared for, spied its mother and began
A blind and babbling laughter, and to dance
Its body, and reach its fatling innocent arms
And lazy lingering fingers. She the appeal
Brook’d not, but clamouring out ‘Mine—mine—not yours,
It is not yours, but mine: give me the child,’
Ceased all on tremble: piteous was the cry:
So stood the unhappy mother open-mouth’d,
And turn’d each face her way: wan was her cheek
With hollow watch, her blooming mantle torn,
Red grief and mother’s hunger in her eye,
And down dead-heavy sank her curls, and half
The sacred mother’s bosom, panting, burst
The laces toward her babe; but she nor cared
Nor knew it, clamouring on, till Ida heard,
Look’d up, and rising slowly from me, stood
Erect and silent, striking with her glance
The mother, me, the child; but he that lay
Beside us, Cyril, batter’d as he was,
Trail’d himself up on one knee: then he drew
Her robe to meet his lips, and down she look’d
At the arm’d man sideways, pitying, as it seem’d,
Or self-involved; but when she learnt his face,
Remembering his ill-omen’d song, arose
Once more thro’ all her height, and o’er him grew
Tall as a figure lengthen’d on the sand
When the tide ebbs in sunshine, and he said:
‘O fair and strong and terrible! Lioness
That with your long locks play the Lion’s mane!
But Love and Nature, these are two more terrible
And stronger. See, your foot is on our necks,
We vanquish’d, you the Victor of your will.
What would you more? give her the child! remain
Orb’d in your isolation: he is dead,
Or all as dead: henceforth we let you be:
Win you the hearts of women; and beware
Lest, where you seek the common love of these,
The common hate with the revolving wheel
Should drag you down, and some great Nemesis
Break from a darken’d future, crown’d with fire,
And tread you out for ever: but howsoe’er
Fix’d in yourself, never in your own arms
To hold your own, deny not hers to her,
Give her the child! O if, I say, you keep
One pulse that beats true woman, if you loved
The breast that fed or arm that dandled you,
Or own one part of sense not flint to prayer,
Give her the child! or if you scorn to lay it,
Yourself, in hands so lately claspt with yours,
Or speak to her, your dearest, her one fault
The tenderness, not yours, that could not kill,
Give me it; I will give it her.’
He said:
At first her eye with slow dilation roll’d
Dry flame, she listening: after sank and sank
And, into mournful twilight mellowing, dwelt
Full on the child; she took it: ‘Pretty bud!
Lily of the vale! half-open’d bell of the woods!
Sole comfort of my dark hour, when a world
Of traitorous friend and broken system made
No purple in the distance, mystery,
Pledge of a love not to be mine, farewell;
These men are hard upon us as of old,
We two must part: and yet how fain was I
To dream thy cause embraced in mine, to think
I might be something to thee, when I felt
Thy helpless warmth about my barren breast
In the dead prime: but may thy mother prove
As true to thee as false, false, false to me!
And, if thou needs must bear the yoke, I wish it
Gentle as freedom’—here she kiss’d it: then—
‘All good go with thee! take it, Sir,’ and so
Laid the soft babe in his hard-mailed hands.
Who turn’d half-round to Psyche as she sprang
To meet it, with an eye that swum in thanks;
Then felt it sound and whole from head to foot,
And hugg’d and never hugg’d it close enough,
And in her hunger mouth’d and mumbled it,
And hid her bosom with it; after that
Put on more calm and added suppliantly:
‘We two were friends: I go to mine own land
For ever: find some other: as for me
I scarce am fit for your great plans: yet speak to me,
Say one soft word and let me part forgiven.’
But Ida spoke not, rapt upon the child.
Then Arac. ‘Ida—’sdeath! you blame the man;
You wrong yourselves—the woman is so hard
Upon the woman. Come, a grace to me!
I am your warrior: I and mine have fought
Your battle: kiss her; take her hand, she weeps:
’Sdeath! I would sooner fight thrice o’er than see it.’
But Ida spoke not, gazing on the ground;
And reddening in the furrows of his chin,
And moved beyond his custom, Gama said:
‘I’ve heard that there is iron in the blood,
And I believe it. Not one word? not one?
Whence drew you this steel temper? not from me,
Not from your mother, now a saint with saints.
She said you had a heart—I heard her say it—
“Our Ida has a heart”—just ere she died—
“But see that some one with authority
Be near her still:” and I—I sought for one—
All people said she had authority—
The Lady Blanche: much profit! Not one word;
No! tho’ your father sues: see how you stand
Stiff as Lot’s wife, and all the good knights maim’d,
I trust that there is no one hurt to death,
For your wild whim: and was it then for this,
Was it for this we gave our palace up,
Where we withdrew from summer heats and state,
And had our wine and chess beneath the planes,
And many a pleasant hour with her that’s gone,
Ere you were born to vex us? Is it kind?
Speak to her I say: is this not she of whom,
When first she came, all flush’d you said to me
Now had you got a friend of your own age,
Now could you share your thought; now should men see
Two women faster welded in one love
Than pairs of wedlock; she you walk’d with, she
You talk’d with, whole nights long, up in the tower,
Of sine and arc, spheroid and azimuth,
And right ascension, Heaven knows what; and now
A word, but one, one little kindly word,
Not one to spare her: out upon you, flint!
You love nor her, nor me, nor any; nay,
You shame your mother’s judgement too. Not one?
You will not? well—no heart have you, or such
As fancies like the vermin in a nut
Have fretted all to dust and bitterness.’
So said the small king moved beyond his wont.
But Ida stood nor spoke, drain’d of her force
By many a varying influence and so long.
Down thro’ her limbs a drooping languor wept:
Her head a little bent; and on her mouth
A doubtful smile dwelt like a clouded moon
In a still water: then brake out my sire,
Lifting his grim head from my wounds: ‘O you,
Woman, whom we thought woman even now,
And were half fool’d to let you tend our son,
Because he might have wished it—but we see
The accomplice of your madness unforgiven,
And think that you might mix his draught with death,
When your skies change again: the rougher hand
Is safer: on to the tents: take up the Prince.’
He rose, and while each ear was prick’d to attend
A tempest, thro’ the cloud that dimm’d her broke
A genial warmth and light once more, and shone
Thro’ glittering drops on her sad friend.
‘Come hither,
O Psyche,’ she cried out, ‘embrace me, come,
Quick while I melt; make reconcilement sure
With one that cannot keep her mind an hour:
Come to the hollow heart they slander so!
Kiss and be friends, like children being chid!
I seem no more: I want forgiveness too:
I should have had to do with none but maids,
That have no links with men. Ah false but dear,
Dear traitor, too much loved, why?—why?—Yet see,
Before these kings we embrace you yet once more
With all forgiveness, all oblivion,
And trust, not love you less.
And now, O Sire,
Grant me your son, to nurse, to wait upon him,
Like mine own brother. For my debt to him,
This nightmare weight of gratitude, I know it;
Taunt me no more: yourself and yours shall have
Free adit; we will scatter all our maids
Till happier times each to her proper hearth:
What use to keep them here now? grant my prayer.
Help, father, brother, help; speak to the king:
Thaw this male nature to some touch of that
Which kills me with myself, and drags me down
From my fixt height to mob me up with all
The soft and milky rabble of womankind,
Poor weakling ev’n as they are.’
Passionate tears
Follow’d: the king replied not: Cyril said:
‘Your brother, Lady,—Florian,—ask for him
Of your great head—for he is wounded too—
That you may tend upon him with the prince.’
‘Ay so,’ said Ida with a bitter smile,
‘Our laws are broken: let him enter too.’
Then Violet, she that sang the mournful song,
And had a cousin tumbled on the plain,
Petition’d too for him. ‘Ay so,’ she said,
‘I stagger in the stream: I cannot keep
My heart an eddy from the brawling hour:
We break our laws with ease, but let it be.’
‘Ay so?’ said Blanche: ‘Amazed am I to hear
Your Highness: but your Highness breaks with ease
The law your Highness did not make: ’twas I.
I had been wedded wife, I knew mankind,
And block’d them out; but these men came to woo
Your Highness—verily I think to win.’
So she, and turn’d askance a wintry eye:
But Ida with a voice, that like a bell
Toll’d by an earthquake in a trembling tower,
Rang ruin, answer’d full of grief and scorn:
‘Fling our doors wide! all, all, not one, but all,
Not only he, but by my mother’s soul,
Whatever man lies wounded, friend or foe,
Shall enter, if he will. Let our girls flit,
Till the storm die! but had you stood by us,
The roar that breaks the Pharos from his base
Had left us rock. She fain would sting us too,
But shall not. Pass, and mingle with your likes.
We brook no further insult but are gone.’
She turn’d; the very nape of her white neck
Was rosed with indignation: but the Prince
Her brother came; the king her father charm’d
Her wounded soul with words: nor did mine own
Refuse her proffer, lastly gave his hand.
Then us they lifted up, dead weights, and bare
Straight to the doors: to them the doors gave way
Groaning, and in the Vestal entry shriek’d
The virgin marble under iron heels:
And on they moved and gain’d the hall, and there
Rested: but great the crush was, and each base,
To left and right, of those tall columns drown’d
In silken fluctuation and the swarm,
Of female whisperers: at the further end
Was Ida by the throne, the two great cats
Close by her, like supporters on a shield,
Bow-back’d with fear: but in the centre stood
The common men with rolling eyes; amazed
They glared upon the women, and aghast
The women stared at these, all silent, save
When armour clash’d or jingled, while the day,
Descending, struck athwart the hall, and shot
A flying splendour out of brass and steel,
That o’er the statues leapt from head to head,
Now fired an angry Pallas on the helm,
Now set a wrathful Dian’s moon on flame,
And now and then an echo started up,
And shuddering fled from room to room, and died
Of fright in far apartments.
Then the voice
Of Ida sounded, issuing ordinance:
And me they bore up the broad stairs, and thro’
The long-laid galleries past a hundred doors
To one deep chamber shut from sound, and due
To languid limbs and sickness; left me in it;
And others otherwhere they laid; and all
That afternoon a sound arose of hoof
And chariot, many a maiden passing home
Till happier times; but some were left of those
Held sagest, and the great lords out and in,
From those two hosts that lay beside the walls,
Walk’d at their will, and everything was changed.
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