And drawing from his belt a pistol, he
Replied, 'Your blood be then on your own head.'
Then look'd close at the flint, as if to see
'Twas fresh?for he had lately used the lock6?
And next proceeded quietly to cock.
41
It has a strange quick jar upon the ear,
That cocking of a pistol, when you know
A moment more will bring the sight to bear
Upon your person, twelve yards off, or so;
A gentlemanly distance,7 not too near,
If you have got a former friend for foe;
But after being fired at once or twice,
The ear becomes more Irish, and less nice.8
6. The part of the gun that explodes the charge. 8. Finicky. Byron alludes to the propensity of hot7. I.e., dueling distance. headed young Irishmen to fight duels.
.
730 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
42
Lambro presented, and one instant more
330
Had stopp'd this Canto, and Don Juan's breath,
When Haidee threw herself her boy before;
Stern as her sire: 'On me,' she cried, 'let death
Descend?the fault is mine; this fatal shore
He found?but sought not. I have pledged my faith;
335 I love him?I will die with him: I knew
Your nature's firmness?know your daughter's too.' 43
A minute past, and she had been all tears,
And tenderness, and infancy: but now
She stood as one who champion'd human fears?
340 Pale, statue-like, and stern, she woo'd the blow; And tall beyond her sex, and their compeers,9 She drew up to her height, as if to show
A fairer mark; and with a fix'd eye scann'd
Her father's face?but never stopp'd his hand. 44
345 He gazed on her, and she on him; 'twas strange
How like they look'd! the expression was the same;
Serenely savage, with a little change
In the large dark eye's mutual-darted flame;
For she too was as one who could avenge,
350 If cause should be?a lioness, though tame:
Her father's blood before her father's face
Boil'cl up, and prov'd her truly of his race. 45
I said they were alike, their features and
Their stature differing but in sex and years;
355 Even to the delicacy of their hand
There was resemblance, such as true blood wears;
And now to see them, thus divided, stand
In fix'd ferocity, when joyous tears,
And sweet sensations, should have welcomed both,
360 Show what the passions are in their full growth.
