The Arctic Queen | Page 2

some perched on towers remote?Or bore green banners o'er the mirroring sea,?Or flitted through dim valleys, bright and fast,?Casting their flickering shadows down the deep?And awful solitudes of Arctic lands.
Such of her people as had aught to ask?Of favor or redress, from air and earth,?Came now, bringing petitions, councils, gifts.?Some slid on twinkling star-beams through the air,?Some sailed in shallops over the light waves,?And all who came had presents for their Queen,--?Rare tints which they had caught just as the Moon?Peered o'er the shoulder of the mighty Thug.--?Those dwelling in the caverns of the sea?Brought up the gayest jewels they could find,?And pearls from underneath their low-based bergs?Deep in the green waves, that, with thunderous sound,?Did lull the giants of the North to sleep.
There came, as time rolled by, from the far verge?Of her vast realm, the rugged guardian ghouls,?Stationed in fortresses and waging war?On all encroachers from the hated South.?These had wild forms and gaunt; their dress was rude--?Skins of the white bear fastened to their loins.?They bore long, glistening spears, and deadly clubs?Wrenched from the spines of monsters of the sea.?Their gifts were rude as they, and yet their Queen?Unbent the radiant quiet of her brow,?Gazing with favor on these proofs of valor.?Tales of achievements dread, of battles, deaths,?Had they to speak, while, with pleased ear intent,?Their sovereign listened.
One warrior ghoul?With crispy locks and frosty eyes, and breath?Chiller than death's,--naked, as scorning e'en?To wear the trophies of his fierce renown--?Before the Presence stood, and told in haste,--?As half impatient of the wish to boast,?Yet proud to serve so well--how he was called?WOLE, guardian of old Thug;--how from the South?Came, ploughing slowly through the unwilling sea,?A ship, crowded with mortals from that land;?How, boldly, in defiance of commands?Sent out by skirmishing Frosts, they still drew near,?Passing the outer line of her domains;?Daring to come, with their invading eyes,?Where never mortals else had looked and lived.?He told,--and here he glanced, upon his friends,?Eyes of bright scorn--how the imperious ship?Passed safely Tug and Dor, though all the guards?Shot barbs of ice, and filled the air with fine,?Invisible needles, piercing their pained flesh,?And tore their stiffening sails with sharp-teethed winds; How, still, the ship pressed on where He kept watch,?Ready to do new service for his Queen:?How, as it closer came, he fixed his eyes?Relentlessly upon it, till nor hand,?Nor foot, nor eyelid of the fated crew?Had power to stir, nor even the sails to flap,?While banded winds which he sent forth, still drove?The doomed ones onward to the eager shore,?Where every soul had perished, one by one.
"Thou hast done well, old WOLE," Queen OENE said.
Stepping a pace in front of her companions,?With bashful cheek, but with a kindling eye--?"'Tis not for one like me to have a thought?In thy rare presence, Queen," KOLONA said,--?"Yet I would dare to tell thee what I saw?Only a moon ago, when a wild freak?Possessed me to go voyaging alone,?Across the sea, to find what curious things?The other shore might hold. My lily bark,?Being too frail for such a venturous cruise?I borrowed GONDOR's boat of nautilus' shells,?Put up my lua-leaf sail and swiftly sped?Across the ocean, till this level isle?Grew smaller than a star. The air grew cold:--?I almost shivered in my bird's-down mantle;?But when I neared the opposing shore, the sight?Of all its snowy scenery, repaid me.?Coasting along at leisure, on a cliff?Which overhung the sea, I saw appear?A being, whom I knew at once as Man.--?One of that mortal race which we have kept?Forever, since our chronicles began,?With war assiduous, from our inner realms,?Still undefiled by their invading feet.?The choking hurry of my noisy heart?Told me the truth. At first I would have fled,?But, being unperceived by him, I lingered,--?Inquisitive and wilful that I am.?Thenceforth, sweet Queen, I never can forget?The face of this one man which I have seen.?Triumph was on his brow, and yet not that?So much as doubt and earnest questioning.?Something arose into his eyes and shone?Which must have been his Soul; it searched the deep,?The earth, the sky, with bright and troubled gaze;?And then, glanced forward with so still a look,?It seemed that it, perforce, would vanish space,?And bring our secret world within its ken;?Yet, with no cruelty or wantonness,?Such as we hear gleamed from the cunning eyes?Of those fierce hordes who, centuries ago,?Came in their boats and strove to conquer us.?Knowledge was what it craved, with truth it burned;?A majesty we cannot name, expressed?Its power within his features. Then I felt?That, could I bring him to thy gracious feet?He would reveal to us that mystery?The dream of which so oft hath troubled us,?Breaking upon us, like the light of Heaven,?Too high for us to fix its source--that spoke?Of an eternal, comprehensive Life,?The thought of which doth haunt us. In return?We could bestow the knowledge which he craved,?And link his