The Arctic Queen | Page 9

of men?Renowned of deeds which have not failed, like mine--?This is the portion of that happier crowd?Who set me on to dangerous enterprise.?But ah! the worst part of it all, is this,--?To be forgotten by my own best friends--?To be to them as if I ne'er had been!?My wife--my wife!"--he ended with bowed head.
"Art thou indeed a spirit?" OLIVE asked,?Shrinking a step aside. Then her kind heart?O'ercome the transient awe, and stealing close,?While smiling on him with sweet, wondering eyes,?Began again:--"But art thou truly he?Whose name is on the lip of the great world?--?Of whom the wives and mothers, tearful, speak?When sound the Northern wind-harps?--whose grand fate,?Hath power to touch, not only hearts of men,?But draw the golden drops from weeping purses??Oh! be content! if Fame and Love content thee.?For thee, the hearts of mariners beat loud--?For thee, ships chase the pathways of the sea--?By thee the souls of nations, like one chord?Are smote upon, and ring out sympathy;?And men talk on the streets, and by their hearths,?Of him who led to dismal, distant shores?The Crusade of the Nineteenth Century.?In that new world, where generous hearts are found?To flourish on the air of liberty,?A noble merchant fitted out a ship;?And others joined him in his kindly plan,?So deep the interest taken in thy fate.?And oh, for thee, thou princely-fortuned man,?A pale face from a northern window looks,?Forever looks, with constancy sublime.?At night, when spectral tints are in the North--?By day, when winds blow down from that bleak source--?That face peers from the window anxiously,?As if the elements might come from thee?Bearing some message to her pining heart."
As breaks the sunlight from a snow-filled cloud,?Smiles struggled through the list'ner's wintry looks.
"As land-bird with a green twig in its beak?Is welcome to the homesick ship which long?Hath tossed in foreign waters, so art thou?Welcome to me, with this consoling tale.?I am content. Weird OENE, keep me here!?And I will while away a century?In dreaming of a love which hath not failed;?Now knowing that the first to welcome me?In Heaven's ineffable bowers, will be my wife."
"Since thou, Sir JOHN, protected me from harm,?What I have said may be some small return.?I do dislike to leave thee here, so lonely;?But since I for my BERTHO went in search,?Nought stays my footsteps long. Where'er I go,?Whether I be successful in my search,?Or perish by the way, I trust again?We shall in spirit, if not in body, meet.?I have seen this witching Pole-Queen; I have passed?This circling cold and stood in the warm heart?Of her domains--have pressed her magic isle?With my poor human feet, and with my voice?Have plead the cause of two young, eager souls.?She was not kind, and yet not very cruel,?She may relent, even of her hate towards thee.?If I again have access to her ear,?I'll not forget to plead thy cause, dear sir,?As if it were mine own. Farewell!"
"Farewell,?And heaven bless thine innocence, sweet friend."
With parting gesture full of tender grace?And soft regret, she passed upon her way.?A weary time it grew till on the summit?Of Thug she stood, gazing bewildered round.?No more she heard her lover's haunting call;?But she herself cried out with aching voice,?Whose sweetness dropped with every silver tone?From the full note of hope to doubt and fear.
Sudden a chill fell on her, and a shadow;?Her breath congealed, and on those rosy lips?The white rime gathered. From behind a rock,?Which crowned the mountain, there advanced to view?WOLE, that old warrior who before OENE?Rumbled his boastful story. In his hand?He poised his massive spear in act to throw;?Yet, seeing there, chilled in her loveliness,?(Like some young rose-bud nipped by spring-time frost,) The maiden whom his Queen herself did spare,?The frown rolled from his forehead as a cloud?Rolls from a rugged crag. The spear remained?Moveless in air, while through his frosty glance?Melted a softness never known before.?The life so nearly frozen in her veins?Flew back and thrilled her heart, as on her knees?She dropped, and lifting up her pleading hands?Crying--"Slay me, at once, great WOLE, slay me!?With those keen looks, or tell me of my lover!?If this great mountain rested on my breast?It could not crush me worse than this suspense,?Kill me or free me from it! What, to thee--?Thou greatest warrior of this shadowy land,?Whose conquests like the snows upon this mount?Lie white and venerable on thy fame,?Unsoiled by one defeat--what is to thee,?One prisoner, if she who loves him well,?Comes kneeling at thy feet, to ask him back??Thou'lt give him her, I know, since to achieve?Renown like thine there must be generous heart."
"Look!" cried the warrior and outstretched his spear--?"'Tis not auspicious hour for such a plea."
Following the motion of his hand she saw?From the horizon phantom suns and moons?Shoot swiftly, or along the red edge roll.?Dim on the distant verge of ghostly shores?Pale fleets of paler shades, and