THE PRINCESS; A MEDLEY. 15 I. A PRINCE I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, There lived an ancient legend in our house. Some sorcerer, whom a far-off grandsire burnt Because he cast no shadow, had foretold, Dying, that none of all our blood should know The shadow from the substance, and that one Should come to fight with shadows and to fall. For so, my mother said, the story ran. And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, An old and strange affection of the house. Myself too had weird seizures, Heaven knows what : On a sudden in the midst of men and day, And while I walk'd and talk'd as heretofore, I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts, To lash offence, and with long arms and hands Now it chanced that I had been, While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd To one, a neighbouring Princess: she to me Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf At eight years old; and still from time to time Came murmurs of her beauty from the South, And still I wore her picture by my heart, And one dark tress; and all around them both Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their queen. But when the days drew nigh that I should wed, My father sent ambassadors with furs And jewels, gifts, to fetch her: these brought back That morning in the presence room I stood With Cyril and with Florian, my two friends: C The first, a gentleman of broken means (His father's fault) but given to starts and bursts Of revel; and the last, my other heart, And almost my half-self, for still we moved Now, while they spake, I saw my father's face Grow long and troubled like a rising moon, At last I spoke. My father, let me go. It cannot be but some gross error lies Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable : Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame, May rue the bargain made.' And Florian said : 'I have a sister at the foreign court, Who moves about the Princess; she, you know, Who wedded with a nobleman from thence : He, dying lately, left her, as I hear, The lady of three castles in that land : Thro' her this matter might be sifted clean.' And Cyril whisper'd: "Take me with you too.' Then laughing 'what, if these weird seizures come Upon you in those lands, and no one near To point you out the shadow from the truth! Take me I'll serve you better in a strait; In iron gauntlets: break the council up.' |