Right Royal | Page 9

bed,?Going to business, all seemed dead,?Dead as death to that rush in strife?Pulse for pulse with the heart of life.
"For to all," Charles thought, "when the blood beats high?Comes the glimpse of that which may not die;?When the world is stilled, when the wanting dwindles,?When the mind takes light and the spirit kindles,?One stands on a peak of this old earth."
Charles eyed his horses and sang with mirth.?What of this world that spins through space??With red blood running lie rode a race,?The beast's red spirit was one with his,?Emulous and in ecstasies;?Joy that from heart to wild heart passes?In the wild things going through the grasses;
In the hares in the corn, in shy gazelles?Running the sand where no man dwells;?In horses scared at the prairie spring;?In the dun deer noiseless, hurrying;?In fish in the dimness scarcely seen,?Save as shadows shooting in a shaking green;?In birds in the air, neck-straining, swift,?Wing touching wing while no wings shift,?Seen by none, but when stars appear?A reaper wandering home may hear?A sigh aloft where the stars are dim,?Then a great rush going over him:?This was his; it had linked him close?To the force by which the comet goes,?With the rein none sees, with the lash none feels,?But with fire-mane tossing and flashing heels.
The roar of the race-course died behind them,?In front were their Fates, they rode to find them,?With the wills of men, with the strengths of horses,?They dared the minute with all their forces.
PART II
Still pulling double, black Kubbadar led,?Pulling his rider half over his head;?Soyland's cream jacket was spotted with red,?Spotted with dirt from the rush of their tread.
Bright bay Sir Lopez, the loveliest there,?Galloped at ease as though taking the air,?Well in his compass with plenty to spare.?Gavotte and The Ghost and the brown Counter Vair,?Followed him close with Syringa the mare,?And the roan horse Red Ember who went like a hare,?And Forward-Ho bolting, though his rider did swear.
Keeping this order, they reached the next fence,?Which was living plashed blackthorn with gorse-toppings dense; In the gloom of its darkness it loomed up immense.?Forward-Ho's glory had conquered his sense?And he rushed it, not rising, and never went thence.
And down in the ditch where the gorse-spikes were scattered, That bright chestnut's soul from his body was shattered,?And his rider shed tears on the dear head all spattered.
King Tony came down, but got up with a stumble,?His rider went sideways, but knew how to tumble,?And got up and remounted, though the pain made him humble,?And he rode fifty yards and then stopped in a fumble.
With a rush and a crashing Right Royal went over?With the stride of a stalwart and the blood of a lover,?He landed on stubble now pushing with clover.
And just as he landed, the March sun shone bright?And the blue sky showed flamelike and the dun clouds turned white; The little larks panted aloft their delight,?Trembling and singing as though one with the light.
And Charles, as he rode, felt the joy of their singing,?While over the clover the horses went stringing,?And up from Right Royal the message came winging,?"It is my day to-day, though the pace may be stinging,
Though the jumps be all danger and the going all clinging." The white, square church-tower with its weather-cocks swinging, Rose up on the right above grass and dark plough?Where the elm trees' black branches had bud on the bough.
Riderless Thankful strode on at his side,?His bright stirrup-irons flew up at each stride,?Being free, in this gallop, had filled him with pride.?Charles thought, "What would come, if he ran out or shied??I wish from my heart that the brute would keep wide."?Coranto drew up on Right Royal's near quarter,?Beyond lay a hurdle and ditch full of water.
And now as they neared it, Right Royal took heed?Of the distance to go and the steps he would need;?He cocked to the effort with eyes bright as gleed,?Then Coranto's wide wallow shot past him at speed:?His rider's "Hup, hup, now!" called out quick and cheerly,?Sent him over in style, but Right Royal jumped early.
Just a second too soon, and from some feet too far,?Charles learned the mistake as he struck the top bar;?Then the water flashed skywards, the earth gave a jar,?And the man on Coranto looked back with "Aha!?That'll teach you, my son." Then with straining of leather, Grey Glory and Monkery landed together.
For a second the stunning kept Charles from his pain,?Then his sense flooded back, making everything plain.?He was down on the mud, but he still held the rein;?Right Royal was heaving his haunch from the drain.?The field was ahead of him, going like rain,?And though the plough held them, they went like the wind?To the eyes of a man left so badly behind.
Charles climbed to his feet as Right Royal crawled out,?He said, "That's extinction beyond any doubt."?On the plough, on and on,