The sun is glowing as a brand; And faint before the parching heat, The strength forsakes the feeble feet: "Thou hast saved me from the robbers" hand, Through wild floods given the blessed land; And shall the weak limbs fail me now?
And he!--Divine one, nerve me, thou!"
Hark! like some gracious murmur by, Babbles low music, silver-clear-- The wanderer holds his breath to hear; And from the rock, before his eye, Laughs forth the spring delightedly; Now the sweet waves he bends him o"er, And the sweet waves his strength restore.
Through the green boughs the sun gleams dying, O"er fields that drink the rosy beam, The trees" huge shadows giant seem.
Two strangers on the road are hieing; And as they fleet beside him flying, These muttered words his ear dismay: "Now--now the cross has claimed its prey!"
Despair his winged path pursues, The anxious terrors hound him on-- There, reddening in the evening sun, From far, the domes of Syracuse!-- When towards him comes Philostratus (His leal and trusty herdsman he), And to the master bends his knee.
"Back--thou canst aid thy friend no more, The n.i.g.g.ard time already flown-- His life is forfeit--save thine own!
Hour after hour in hope he bore, Nor might his soul its faith give o"er; Nor could the tyrant"s scorn deriding, Steal from that faith one thought confiding!"
"Too late! what horror hast thou spoken!
Vain life, since it cannot requite him!
But death with me can yet unite him; No boast the tyrant"s scorn shall make-- How friend to friend can faith forsake.
But from the double death shall know, That truth and love yet live below!"
The sun sinks down--the gate"s in view, The cross looms dismal on the ground-- The eager crowd gape murmuring round.
His friend is bound the cross unto. . . .
Crowd--guards--all bursts he breathless through: "Me! Doomsman, me!" he shouts, "alone!
His life is rescued--lo, mine own!"
Amazement seized the circling ring!
Linked in each other"s arms the pair-- Weeping for joy--yet anguish there!
Moist every eye that gazed;--they bring The wondrous tidings to the king-- His breast man"s heart at last hath known, And the friends stand before his throne.
Long silent, he, and wondering long, Gazed on the pair--"In peace depart, Victors, ye have subdued my heart!
Truth is no dream!--its power is strong.
Give grace to him who owns his wrong!
"Tis mine your suppliant now to be, Ah, let the band of love--be three!" [37]
GREEKISM.
Scarce has the fever so chilly of Gallomania departed, When a more burning attack in Grecomania breaks out.
Greekism,--what did it mean?--"Twas harmony, reason, and clearness!
Patience,--good gentlemen, pray, ere ye of Greekism speak!
"Tis for an excellent cause ye are fighting, and all that I ask for Is that with reason it ne"er may be a laughing-stock made.
THE DIVER.
A BALLAD.
"What knight or what va.s.sal will be so bold As to plunge in the gulf below?
See! I hurl in its depths a goblet of gold, Already the waters over it flow.
The man who can bring back the goblet to me, May keep it henceforward,--his own it shall be."
Thus speaks the king, and he hurls from the height Of the cliffs that, rugged and steep, Hang over the boundless sea, with strong might, The goblet afar, in the bellowing deep.
"And who"ll be so daring,--I ask it once more,-- As to plunge in these billows that wildly roar?"
And the va.s.sals and knights of high degree Hear his words, but silent remain.
They cast their eyes on the raging sea, And none will attempt the goblet to gain.
And a third time the question is asked by the king: "Is there none that will dare in the gulf now to spring?"
Yet all as before in silence stand, When a page, with a modest pride, Steps out of the timorous squirely band, And his girdle and mantle soon throws aside, And all the knights, and the ladies too, The n.o.ble stripling with wonderment view.
And when he draws nigh to the rocky brow, And looks in the gulf so black, The waters that she had swallowed but now, The howling Charybdis is giving back; And, with the distant thunder"s dull sound.
From her gloomy womb they all-foaming rebound.
And it boils and it roars, and it hisses and seethes, As when water and fire first blend; To the sky spurts the foam in steam-laden wreaths, And wave presses hard upon wave without end.
And the ocean will never exhausted be, As if striving to bring forth another sea.
But at length the wild tumult seems pacified, And blackly amid the white swell A gaping chasm its jaws opens wide, As if leading down to the depths of h.e.l.l: And the howling billows are seen by each eye Down the whirling funnel all madly to fly.
Then quickly, before the breakers rebound, The stripling commends him to Heaven, And--a scream of horror is heard around,-- And now by the whirlpool away he is driven, And secretly over the swimmer brave Close the jaws, and he vanishes "neath the dark wave.
O"er the watery gulf dread silence now lies, But the deep sends up a dull yell, And from mouth to mouth thus trembling it flies: "Courageous stripling, oh, fare thee well!"
And duller and duller the howls recommence, While they pause in anxious and fearful suspense.
"If even thy crown in the gulf thou shouldst fling, And shouldst say, "He who brings it to me Shall wear it henceforward, and be the king,"
Thou couldst tempt me not e"en with that precious foe; What under the howling deep is concealed To no happy living soul is revealed!"
Full many a ship, by the whirlpool held fast, Shoots straightway beneath the mad wave, And, dashed to pieces, the hull and the mast Emerge from the all-devouring grave,-- And the roaring approaches still nearer and nearer, Like the howl of the tempest, still clearer and clearer.
And it boils and it roars, and it hisses and seethes, As when water and fire first blend; To the sky spurts the foam in steam-laden wreaths, And wave pa.s.ses hard upon wave without end.
And, with the distant thunder"s dull sound, From the ocean-womb they all-bellowing bound.
And lo! from the darkly flowing tide Comes a vision white as a swan, And an arm and a glistening neck are descried, With might and with active zeal steering on; And "tis he, and behold! his left hand on high Waves the goblet, while beaming with joy is his eye.
Then breathes he deeply, then breathes he long, And blesses the light of the day; While gladly exclaim to each other the throng: "He lives! he is here! he is not the sea"s prey!
From the tomb, from the eddying waters" control, The brave one has rescued his living soul!"
And he comes, and they joyously round him stand; At the feet of the monarch he falls,-- The goblet he, kneeling, puts in his hand, And the king to his beauteous daughter calls, Who fills it with sparkling wine to the brim; The youth turns to the monarch, and speaks thus to him:
"Long life to the king! Let all those be glad Who breathe in the light of the sky!
For below all is fearful, of moment sad; Let not man to tempt the immortals e"er try, Let him never desire the thing to see That with terror and night they veil graciously."
"I was torn below with the speed of light, When out of a cavern of rock Rushed towards me a spring with furious might; I was seized by the twofold torrent"s wild shock, And like a top, with a whirl and a bound, Despite all resistance, was whirled around."
"Then G.o.d pointed out,--for to Him I cried In that terrible moment of need,-- A craggy reef in the gulf"s dark side; I seized it in haste, and from death was then freed.
And there, on sharp corals, was hanging the cup,-- The fathomless pit had else swallowed it up."
"For under me lay it, still mountain-deep, In a darkness of purple-tinged dye, And though to the ear all might seem then asleep With shuddering awe "twas seen by the eye How the salamanders" and dragons" dread forms Filled those terrible jaws of h.e.l.l with their swarms."