The Princess | Page 7

bribe
To guerdon silence, mounted our
good steeds,
And boldly ventured on the liberties.
We followed up the river as we rode,
And rode till midnight when the
college lights
Began to glitter firefly-like in copse
And linden alley:
then we past an arch,
Whereon a woman-statue rose with wings

From four winged horses dark against the stars;
And some inscription
ran along the front,
But deep in shadow: further on we gained
A
little street half garden and half house;
But scarce could hear each
other speak for noise
Of clocks and chimes, like silver hammers
falling
On silver anvils, and the splash and stir
Of fountains spouted
up and showering down
In meshes of the jasmine and the rose:
And
all about us pealed the nightingale,
Rapt in her song, and careless of
the snare.
There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign,
By two sphere lamps blazoned
like Heaven and Earth
With constellation and with continent,

Above an entry: riding in, we called;
A plump-armed Ostleress and a
stable wench
Came running at the call, and helped us down.
Then
stept a buxom hostess forth, and sailed,
Full-blown, before us into
rooms which gave
Upon a pillared porch, the bases lost
In laurel:
her we asked of that and this,
And who were tutors. 'Lady Blanche'
she said,
'And Lady Psyche.' 'Which was prettiest,
Best-natured?'
'Lady Psyche.' 'Hers are we,'
One voice, we cried; and I sat down and
wrote,
In such a hand as when a field of corn
Bows all its ears
before the roaring East;
'Three ladies of the Northern empire pray

Your Highness would
enroll them with your own,
As Lady Psyche's pupils.'
This I sealed:
The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll,
And o'er his

head Uranian Venus hung,
And raised the blinding bandage from his
eyes:
I gave the letter to be sent with dawn;
And then to bed, where
half in doze I seemed
To float about a glimmering night, and watch

A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight, swell
On some dark shore
just seen that it was rich.
As through the land at eve we went,
And plucked the ripened ears,
We fell out, my wife and I,
O we fell
out I know not why,
And kissed again with tears.
And blessings on the falling out
That all the more endears,
When we fall out with those we love
And kiss again with tears!
For when we came where lies the child
We lost in other years,
There above the little grave,
O there above
the little grave,
We kissed again with tears.
II
At break of day the College Portress came:
She brought us Academic
silks, in hue
The lilac, with a silken hood to each,
And zoned with
gold; and now when these were on,
And we as rich as moths from
dusk cocoons,
She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know
The
Princess Ida waited: out we paced,
I first, and following through the
porch that sang
All round with laurel, issued in a court
Compact of
lucid marbles, bossed with lengths
Of classic frieze, with ample
awnings gay
Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers.
The
Muses and the Graces, grouped in threes,
Enringed a billowing
fountain in the midst;
And here and there on lattice edges lay
Or
book or lute; but hastily we past,
And up a flight of stairs into the
hall.

There at a board by tome and paper sat,
With two tame leopards
couched beside her throne,
All beauty compassed in a female form,

The Princess; liker to the inhabitant
Of some clear planet close upon
the Sun,
Than our man's earth; such eyes were in her head,
And so
much grace and power, breathing down
From over her arched brows,
with every turn
Lived through her to the tips of her long hands,
And
to her feet. She rose her height, and said:
'We give you welcome: not without redound
Of use and glory to
yourselves ye come,
The first-fruits of the stranger: aftertime,
And
that full voice which circles round the grave,
Will rank you nobly,
mingled up with me.
What! are the ladies of your land so tall?'
'We
of the court' said Cyril. 'From the court'
She answered, 'then ye know
the Prince?' and he:
'The climax of his age! as though there were

One rose in all the world, your Highness that,
He worships your
ideal:' she replied:
'We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear
This
barren verbiage, current among men,
Light coin, the tinsel clink of
compliment.
Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem

As arguing love of knowledge and of power;
Your language proves
you still the child. Indeed,
We dream not of him: when we set our
hand
To this great work, we purposed with ourself
Never to wed.
You likewise will do well,
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling

The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so,
Some future time,
if so indeed you will,
You may with those self-styled our lords ally

Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale.'
At those high words, we conscious of ourselves,
Perused the matting:
then an officer
Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these:
Not for
three years to correspond with home;
Not for three years to cross the
liberties;
Not for three years