The Arctic Queen | Page 4

my
intrusion"--here the stranger blushed,
Drooping in silence her
embarrassed head.
"Speak on!" imperially the Pole-Queen said,
Charmed in her own
despite, by that sweet face;
While LIR-LIR to KOLONA leaned and
smiled,
Commending, in a whisper, what she saw:
And a soft flutter
through the courtly train
Stirred, like the shimmer of a moonlit breeze

Kissing the waves:--"I will thy message hear!"

And so the maiden, gathering courage, said:
"Far in a blooming isle,
in Southern seas,
I had a home, whose walls, of marble cool,
Were
chequered by soft shadows, hovering,
Like flocks of birds, about its
battlements;
For, all around, were trees, whose glistening leaves

Danced ever, in the sunlight or the moonlight,
To the soft flutes of the
Arcadian winds;
And to the sleepy music, drowsily
The gorgeous
flowers nodded their lovely heads.
Through the bright days, and in
my sleep at night,
I heard the ripples breaking on the sand,
Till their
continual murmur grew to be
A thing of course,--like sunshine and
fresh air,--
Or like the love which grew into my life,
As color into
flowers when they unfold.
The fluttering foliage and the sighing
waves
Seemed whispering "BERTHO!" ever in my ear;
For
BERTHO was my lover, and my heart
Could find no other meaning
in their sound.
I was a princess of that blooming isle;
But
BERTHO--he was poor! still, not so poor
As brave, high-souled, and
strangely venturesome.
He trusted to the sea to gain his wealth,
As
well as knowledge and a manly fame.
Ah! how I wept, when told that
we must part!
How much more bitter tears I shed that day
On which
he left me, wretched, by the shore,
Watching the gleam of his
receding sails!
"Dim grew the golden air from that dark hour.
Like some rich flower,
torn from the wooing kiss
Of the warm sun, and hidden in a cell,
I
drooped, and lost the redness of my cheeks.
All the wild thrills that
used to come and go,
Tumultuous, through my happy heart, and send

The pulses flying through my frame, died out.
"And thus in sadness two long summers passed.
In madness or in
wisdom my poor brain
Wrought out a vision in my troubled sleep,

Through which I saw my BERTHO, and he bade
My soul be still and
fear not,--I should take
My little boat, in which I used to skirt
The
island shores, and loose it on the deep,
Placing myself within it:--It
would come,
By force of an unknown and magic current,
(The

thought of which, in speculative minds,
Had long been cherished,)
straightway to the shore
Of the strange country where, enthralled, he
dwelt.
If I still loved him, this would prove my love!
"Straight from my couch I rose, and like a ghost
Stole through the
darkness of my father's halls;
Fled to the sea; and in my fragile bark

I heaped a few fresh fruits, and bore a vase
Filled with fresh
water,--this was all my store.
I loosed my shallop from the anchoring
rock,
And, as it drifted out upon the tide,
I leaned upon the single,
slender oar
Whose aid was all I asked upon the deep.
Before my
yearning vision lay my home,
Fading away from sight as the full tide

Went murmuring back from its delightful shores.
The loveliest
hour of all the twenty-four
Charmed earth and ocean, that eventful
time.
Moonlight and morning, softly blending, lay
Upon the land;
while down the glassy sea,
Far in the distance, slowly stole a band

Of sunrise glories, smiling, looking back,
And glowing with warm
splendors. All the East
Was crimson with their blushes, and the
waves
Which followed in their bright and stately way
Wore crests
of gold, and purple-shaded robes.
Next came light breezes blowing
from the land,
Odorous with roses, sweet with drowsy songs
Of
nightingales, and cool with myrtle leaves,
Following down the path
the sunrise took.
And next, the stars went dimly down the west,

Crowd upon crowd, in slow and shining cars,
Bright wheeling down
their heaven-appointed way.
"All day the sun shadowed himself in clouds;
My cheeks scarce
browned beneath his cooled rays.
At night I sank contentedly to sleep,

Upon the silken cushions of my bark;
Then mermaids, who,
attracted by my voice,
Had floated round me, underneath the waves,

Not daring to appear, swam near, reached out
Their arms of
glowing white, and touched the boat.
Charmed by the helplessness of
sleep in me,
They chanted sea-hymns, and I, straightway, dreamed

Of tinkling fountains in my father's halls,
And how my lover sat

beside me there,
Murmuring his words of love in my thrilled ear.

They rocked the bark, too, with their lily hands,
As tender mothers
rock their cradled babes:
And one wild sea-nymph reached and
touched my hair--
I saw her through my dream!--and one unstrung

The pearls from out her own wave-wetted locks,
And flung them by
me.
"The fresh morn waked me;
A current, gentle as a musical sound,

Swept the boat onward, as by magic power.
At times I thought,
perchance, the nymphs beneath
Propelled it, but when I recalled my
dream,
I knew some freak of nature, or some law,
By me
uncomprehended, did the work.
At night I heard the naiads, in a tone

As soft as shepherd's reed, sing ocean-songs;
And sometimes, in
the day, above the wave
I for a moment saw a lovely face,
Pearled
in