|
Lucifer and Festus. |
| Lucifer |
Wilt ride?
|
| Festus |
I’ll have an hour’s ride.
|
| Lucifer |
Be mine the steeds! be me the guide!
Come hither, come hither,
My brave black steed!
And thou, too, his fellow,
Hither with speed!
Though not so fleet
As the steeds of Death,
Your feet are as sure,
Ye have longer breath.
Ye have drawn the world
Without wind or bait,
Six thousand years,
And it waxeth late;
So take me this once,
And again to my home,
And rest ye and feast ye.
They come, they come.
|
| Festus |
Tossing their manes like
Pitchy surge; and lashing
Their tails into a
Tempest; their eyes flashing,
Like shooting thunderbolts.
|
| Lucifer |
Come, know your masters, colts!
Up, and away!
|
| Festus |
Hurrah! hurrah!
The noblest pace the world e’er saw.
I swear by Heaven we’ll beat the sun,
In the longest heat that ever was run;
If we keep it up as we have begun.
|
| Lucifer |
I told thee my steeds
Were a gallant pair.
|
| Festus |
And they were not thine,
They might be divine.
|
| Lucifer |
Thine is named Ruin;
And Darkness mine.
|
| Festus |
Like all of thy deeds
Now that’s unfair.
|
| Lucifer |
A civiller and gentler beast
Thou hast never crossed at least.
Now, look around!
|
| Festus |
Why, this is France.
Nature is here like a living romance.
Look at its vines and streams and skies,
Its glancing feet and dancing eye!
|
| Lucifer |
’Tis a strange nation, light yet strong;
Fierce of heart and blithe of tongue;
Prone to change; so fond of blood
She wounds herself to quaff her own.
|
| Festus |
Oh! it’s a brave and lovely land;
And well deserving every good
Which others wish themselves alone,
Could she but herself command.
|
| Lucifer |
On! on! no more delay!
Or we’ll not ride round
The world all day.
|
| Festus |
Good horse, get off the ground!
|
| Lucifer |
Sit firm! and if our horses please,
We will take at once the Pyrenees.
’Twas bravely leapt!
|
| Festus |
Ay, this is Spain:
Europe’s last land
’Twill e’er remain;
Last in the progress of the earth;
The last in liberty;
The last in wealth and worth;
The last in bigotry.
|
| Lucifer |
Turn thy steed, and slacken rein;
Quick! we must be back again:
O’er the vale hid in the mountain,
O’er the merry forest fountain;
Ruin and Darkness! we must fly
O’er crag and rift,
Swift—swift—swift
As the glance of an eye.
|
| Festus |
That is Italy—the grave
And resurrection of the slave.
|
| Lucifer |
And there lies Greece, whose soul
Men say hath fled.
|
| Festus |
Perhaps some God may come,
And raise the dead.
|
| Lucifer |
Norward now we’ll hold our course.
Thine I think is the bolder horse;
But bear him up with a harder hand!
Bough riding this o’er Swisserland.
|
| Festus |
So all have found it who have tried;
High as their Alps the people’s pride,
Never to have bowed before
The tyrant or the conqueror.
|
| Lucifer |
Away, away! before thee lie
The fields and floods of Germany.
|
| Festus |
Well I love thee, Father-land!
Sire of Europe, as thou art!
Be free! and crouch no more, but stand!
Thy noblest son will take thy part.
Oh! sooner let the mountains bend
Beneath the clouds, when tempests lour,
Than nations stoop their sky compeering heads
In homage to some petty despot’s power!
The worm which suffers mincing into parts,
May sprout forth heads and tails, but grows no hearts.
|
| Lucifer |
There lies Austria! Famous land
For fiddlesticks and sword-in-hand.
|
| Festus |
And Poland, whom truly unhappy we call.
Unworthy to rise—unwilling to fall.
Forge into swords thy feudal chain!
Smite e’en the souls of foes in twain!
The fetters have been bound in vain
Round England’s arms: and we are free
As the souls of our sires in Heaven which be.
That earth should have so few
Men, Fathers, like to you!
|
| Lucifer |
What matter who be free or slaves;
For all there is one tyranny, the grave’s;
Or freedom, may be. On! on! haste!
|
| Festus |
What land is yonder wide, white waste?
|
| Lucifer |
Ha! ’tis Russia’s gentle realm:
Whose sceptre is the sword—whose crown, the helm.
|
| Festus |
I swear by every atom which exists,
I better love this reckless ride
O’er hill and forest, lake and river wide;
O’er sunlit plain and through the mountain mists,
Than aught which thou hast given beside.
|
| Lucifer |
See what a long long track
Of dust and fire behind,
For miles and mile aback!
And shrill and strong,
As we shoot along,
Whistles and whirrs,
Like a forest of firs
Falling, the cold north wind.
|
| Festus |
Look! my way I can only read
By the sparks from the hoof of my giant steed.
|
| Lucifer |
Where art thou now?
|
| Festus |
In Tartar land;
I know by the deserts of salt and sand.
Nor aim nor end hath a wandering life:
Rest reaps but rest, and strife but strife.
With the nations round
They ne’er have mixed;
For good or ill
They stand all still;
Their bodies but rove,
Their minds are fixed.
And yonder lies old China’s wall,
Where gods of gold do men enthral;
Gods whose gold’s their only worth.
|
| Lucifer |
Well, is not gold the god of earth?
Now southward, hey! for Hindostan!
The sun beats down both beast and man.
Insect and herb for life do gasp;
The river reeks and faints the asp.
|
| Festus |
But blithe are we,
And our steeds, I trow;
And the mane of mine
Yet bears the snow
Which fell on us
By Caucasus.
By the four beasts! but this is warm.
|
| Lucifer |
Away! away!
Nor stint nor stay;
We’ll reach the sea before yon storm.
|
| Festus |
Wilt take the sea?
|
| Lucifer |
Ay, that will we!
And swim as we ride,
Our steeds astride;
Come leap, leap off with me!
|
| Festus |
What? shall we leap
Sheer off this steep,
A mile the sea above?
|
| Lucifer |
Leap as to save
From worse than a grave
The maid thou most dost love!
|
| Festus |
There
|
