And paw'd about her sandal. I drew near;

I gazed. On a sudden my strange seizure came Upon me, the weird vision of our house :

The Princess Ida seem'd a hollow show,

Her gay-furr'd cats a painted fantasy,

Her college and her maidens, empty masks,
And I myself the shadow of a dream,

For all things were and were not. Yet I felt

My heart beat thick with passion and with awe ; Then from my breast the involuntary sigh

Brake, as she smote me with the light of eyes knee desire to kneel, and shook

That lent my

My pulses, till to horse we got, and so
Went forth in long retinue following up

The river as it narrow'd to the hills.

I rode beside her and to me she said:
'O friend, we trust that you esteem'd us not
Too harsh to your companion yestermorn;
Unwillingly we spake.' 'No-not to her,'

I answer'd,' but to one of whom we spake

Your Highness might have seem'd the thing you say.'

'Again?' she cried 'are you

ambassadresses

From him to me? we give you, being strange,

A license speak, and let the topic die.'

:

I stammer'd that I knew him-could have wish'd

Our king expects-was there no precontract?

There is no truer-hearted—ah, you seem

All he prefigured, and he could not see
The bird of passage flying south but long'd

To follow surely, if your Highness keep
Your purport, you will shock him ev'n to death,
Or baser courses, children of despair.'

'Poor boy' she said 'can he not read—no books? Quoit, tennis, ball-no games? nor deals in that

Which men delight in, martial exercise ?

To nurse a blind ideal like a girl,

Methinks he seems no better than a girl;

As girls were once, as we ourselves have been:

We had our dreams; perhaps he mixt with them :

We touch on our dead self, nor shun to do it,

Being other since we learnt our meaning here, To lift the woman's fall'n divinity

Upon an even pedestal with man.'

She paused, and added with a haughtier smile And as to precontracts, we move, my friend, At no man's beck, but know ourselves and thee, O Vashti, noble Vashti! Summon'd out

She kept her state, and left the drunken king
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms.'

'Alas your Highness breathes full East,' I said, 'On that which leans to you. I know the Prince, I prize his truth: and then how vast a work To assail this gray preeminence of man!

You grant me license; might I use it? think,

Ere half be done perchance your life

may

fail;

F

Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan,

And takes and ruins all; and thus your pains

May only make that footprint upon sand
Which old-recurring waves of prejudice

Resmooth to nothing: might I dread that you,

With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss,

Meanwhile, what every woman counts her due,

Love, children, happiness?'

And she exclaim'd,

Peace, you young savage of the Northern wild!

What! tho' your Prince's love were like a God's, Have we not made ourself the sacrifice?

You are bold indeed: we are not talk'd to thus:

Yet will we say for children, would they grew
Like field-flowers everywhere! we like them well :
But children die; and let me tell you, girl,

Howe'er you babble, great deeds cannot die :
They with the sun and moon renew their light
For ever, blessing those that look on them.

Children-that men may pluck them from our hearts,

Kill us with pity, break us with ourselves—

O-children-there is nothing upon earth

More miserable than she that has a son

And sees him err: nor would we work for fame;

Tho' she perhaps might reap the applause of Great, Who learns the one POU STO whence after-hands

May move the world, tho' she herself effect

But little wherefore up and act, nor shrink

:

For fear our solid aim be dissipated

By frail successors. Would, indeed, we had been,

In lieu of many mortal flies, a race

Of giants living, each, a thousand years,

That we might see our own work out, and watch

The sandy footprint harden into stone.'

I answer'd nothing, doubtful in myself
If that strange Poet-princess with her grand
Imaginations might at all be won,

And she broke out interpreting my thoughts: