'Say yea! Let them lash me, Hamish?'-' Nay!'-' Husband, the lashing will heal;

But, oh, who will heal me the bonny sweet bairn in his grave?

Could ye cure me my heart with the death of a knave? Quick! Love! I will bare thee-so- kneel!' Then Maclean 'gan slowly to kneel

With never a word, till presently downward he jerked to the earth.

Then the henchman-he that smote Hamish—would tremble and lag;

'Strike, hard!' quoth Hamish, full stern, from the crag; Then he struck him, and ‘One!' sang Hamish, and danced with the child in his mirth.

And no man spake beside Hamish; he counted each stroke with a song.

When the last stroke fell, then he moved him a pace

down the height,

And he held forth the child in the heart-aching sight Of the mother, and looked all pitiful grave, as repenting a

wrong.

And there as the motherly arms stretched out with the thanksgiving prayer

And there as the mother crept up with a fearful swift

pace,

Till her finger nigh felt of the bairnie's face

In a flash fierce Hamish turned round and lifted the child in the air,

And sprang with the child in his arms from the horrible height in the sea,

Shrill screeching, 'Revenge!' in the wind-rush; and pallid Maclean,

Age-feeble with anger and impotent pain,

Crawled up on the crag, and lay flat, and locked hold of dead

roots of a tree,

And gazed hungrily o'er, and the blood from his back drip

dripped in the brine,

And a sea-hawk flung down a skeleton fish as he flew,

And the mother stared white on the waste of blue, And the wind drove a cloud to seaward, and the sun began to shine.

811

How LOVE LOOKED FOR HELL

To heal his heart of long-time pain
One day Prince Love for to travel was fain
With Ministers Mind and Sense.

'Now what to thee most strange may be?'
Quoth Mind and Sense. All things above,
One curious thing I first would see-
Hell,' quoth Love.

Then Mind rode in and Sense rode out:
They searched the ways of man about.

First frightfully groaneth Sense.
''Tis here, 'tis here,' and spurreth in fear
To the top of the hill that hangeth above
And plucketh the Prince: 'Come, come, 'tis
here-'

'Where?' quoth Love

'Not far, not far,' said shivering Sense
As they rode on. A short way hence,
-But seventy paces hence:

Look, King, dost see where suddenly
This road doth dip from the height above?
Cold blew a mouldy wind by me'

('Cold?' quoth Love)

'As I rode down, and the River was black,
And yon-side, lo! an endless wrack

And rabble of souls,' sighed Sense,

From Poems of Sidney Lanier. Copyright, 1884, 1891, by Mary D. Lanier. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

'Their eyes upturned and begged and burned

In brimstone lakes, and a Hand above Beat back the hands that upward yearned-' 'Nay!' quoth Love

'Yea, yea, sweet Prince; thyself shalt see, Wilt thou but down this slope with me; 'Tis palpable,' whispered Sense.

At the foot of the hill a living rill Shone, and the lilies shone white above; 'But now 'twas black, 'twas a river, this rill,'

('Black?' quoth Love)

'Ay, black, but lo! the lilies grow, And yon-side where was woe, was woe,

Where the rabble of souls,' cried Sense, 'Did shrivel and turn and beg and burn, Thrust back in the brimstone from aboveIs banked of violet, rose, and fern:' 'How?' quoth Love:

'For lakes of pain, yon pleasant plain Of woods and grass and yellow grain Doth ravish the soul and sense:

And never a sigh beneath the sky,

And folk that smile and gaze above-'

'But saw'st thou here, with thine own eye, Hell?' quoth Love.

'I saw true hell with mine own eye, True hell, or light hath told a lie,

True, verily,' quoth stout Sense.

Then Love rode round and searched the

ground,

The caves below, the hills above;

'But I cannot find where thou hast found

Hell,' quoth Love.

There, while they stood in a green wood
And marvelled still on Ill and Good,

Came suddenly Minister Mind.
'In the heart of sin doth hell begin:
'Tis not below, 'tis not above,
It lieth within, it lieth within:'
('Where?' quoth Love)

'I saw a man sit by a corse;

Hell's in the murderer's breast: remorse!
Thus clamored his mind to his mind:
Not fleshly dole is the sinner's goal,
Hell's not below, nor yet above,
'Tis fixed in the ever-damned soul-'
'Fixed?' quoth Love-

'Fixed: follow me, would'st thou but see:
He weepeth under yon willow tree,

Fast chained to his corse,' quoth Mind.
Full soon they passed, for they rode fast,
Where the piteous willow bent above.
'Now shall I see at last, at last,

Hell,' quoth Love.

There when they came Mind suffered shame:

'These be the same and not the same,' A-wondering whispered Mind.

Lo, face by face two spirits pace

Where the blissful willow waves above:
One saith: 'Do me a friendly grace-

('Grace!' quoth Love)

'Read me two Dreams that linger long, Dim as returns of old-time song

That flicker about the mind.

I dreamed (how deep in mortal sleep!)
I struck thee dead, then stood above,
With tears that none but dreamers weep; '
'Dreams,' quoth Love;

(FF) HC XLII

'In dreams, again, I plucked a flower
That clung with pain and stung with power,
Yea, nettled me, body and mind.'
"Twas the nettle of sin, 'twas medicine;
No need nor seed of it here Above;
In dreams of hate true loves begin.'
'True,' quoth Love.

'Now strange,' quoth Sense, and 'Strange,'
quoth Mind,

'We saw it, and yet 'tis hard to find,

-But we saw it,' quoth Sense and Mind.
Stretched on the ground, beautiful-crowned
Of the piteous willow that wreathed above,
'But I cannot find where ye have found
Hell,' quoth Love.

812

BRET HARTE

[1839-1902]

THE REVEILLE

HARK! I hear the tramp of thousands,
And of armed men the hum;
Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered
Round the quick alarming drum,-
Saying, 'Come,
Freemen, come!

Ere your heritage be wasted,' said the quick alarming drum.

Let me of my heart take counsel:

War is not of life the sum;

Who shall stay and reap the harvest
When the autumn days shall come?
But the drum

Echoed, Come!

Death shall reap the braver harvest,' said the solemn-sound

ing drum.