登陆注册
20265700000020

第20章 V(4)

Or you? or I? for since you think me touched In honour--what, I would not aught of false--Is not our case pure? and whereas I know Your prowess, Arac, and what mother's blood You draw from, fight; you failing, I abide What end soever: fail you will not. Still Take not his life: he risked it for my own;His mother lives: yet whatsoe'er you do, Fight and fight well; strike and strike him. O dear Brothers, the woman's Angel guards you, you The sole men to be mingled with our cause, The sole men we shall prize in the after-time, Your very armour hallowed, and your statues Reared, sung to, when, this gad-fly brushed aside, We plant a solid foot into the Time, And mould a generation strong to move With claim on claim from right to right, till she Whose name is yoked with children's, know herself;And Knowledge in our own land make her free, And, ever following those two crown鑔 twins, Commerce and conquest, shower the fiery grain Of freedom broadcast over all the orbs Between the Northern and the Southern morn.'

Then came a postscript dashed across the rest.

See that there be no traitors in your camp:

We seem a nest of traitors--none to trust Since our arms failed--this Egypt-plague of men!

Almost our maids were better at their homes, Than thus man-girdled here: indeed I think Our chiefest comfort is the little child Of one unworthy mother; which she left:

She shall not have it back: the child shall grow To prize the authentic mother of her mind.

I took it for an hour in mine own bed This morning: there the tender orphan hands Felt at my heart, and seemed to charm from thence The wrath I nursed against the world: farewell.'

I ceased; he said, 'Stubborn, but she may sit Upon a king's right hand in thunder-storms, And breed up warriors! See now, though yourself Be dazzled by the wildfire Love to sloughs That swallow common sense, the spindling king, This Gama swamped in lazy tolerance.

When the man wants weight, the woman takes it up, And topples down the scales; but this is fixt As are the roots of earth and base of all;Man for the field and woman for the hearth:

Man for the sword and for the needle she:

Man with the head and woman with the heart:

Man to command and woman to obey;

All else confusion. Look you! the gray mare Is ill to live with, when her whinny shrills From tile to scullery, and her small goodman Shrinks in his arm-chair while the fires of Hell Mix with his hearth: but you--she's yet a colt--Take, break her: strongly groomed and straitly curbed She might not rank with those detestable That let the bantling scald at home, and brawl Their rights and wrongs like potherbs in the street.

They say she's comely; there's the fairer chance:

~I~ like her none the less for rating at her!

Besides, the woman wed is not as we, But suffers change of frame. A lusty brace Of twins may weed her of her folly. Boy, The bearing and the training of a child Is woman's wisdom.'

Thus the hard old king:

I took my leave, for it was nearly noon:

I pored upon her letter which I held, And on the little clause 'take not his life:'

I mused on that wild morning in the woods, And on the 'Follow, follow, thou shalt win:'

I thought on all the wrathful king had said, And how the strange betrothment was to end:

Then I remembered that burnt sorcerer's curse That one should fight with shadows and should fall;And like a flash the weird affection came:

King, camp and college turned to hollow shows;I seemed to move in old memorial tilts, And doing battle with forgotten ghosts, To dream myself the shadow of a dream:

And ere I woke it was the point of noon, The lists were ready. Empanoplied and plumed We entered in, and waited, fifty there Opposed to fifty, till the trumpet blared At the barrier like a wild horn in a land Of echoes, and a moment, and once more The trumpet, and again: at which the storm Of galloping hoofs bare on the ridge of spears And riders front to front, until they closed In conflict with the crash of shivering points, And thunder. Yet it seemed a dream, I dreamed Of fighting. On his haunches rose the steed, And into fiery splinters leapt the lance, And out of stricken helmets sprang the fire.

Part sat like rocks: part reeled but kept their seats:

Part rolled on the earth and rose again and drew:

Part stumbled mixt with floundering horses. Down From those two bulks at Arac's side, and down From Arac's arm, as from a giant's flail, The large blows rained, as here and everywhere He rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists, And all the plain,--brand, mace, and shaft, and shield--Shocked, like an iron-clanging anvil banged With hammers; till I thought, can this be he From Gama's dwarfish loins? if this be so, The mother makes us most--and in my dream I glanced aside, and saw the palace-front Alive with fluttering scarfs and ladies' eyes, And highest, among the statues, statuelike, Between a cymballed Miriam and a Jael, With Psyche's babe, was Ida watching us, A single band of gold about her hair, Like a Saint's glory up in heaven: but she No saint--inexorable--no tenderness--Too hard, too cruel: yet she sees me fight, Yea, let her see me fall! and with that I drave Among the thickest and bore down a Prince, And Cyril, one. Yea, let me make my dream All that I would. But that large-moulded man, His visage all agrin as at a wake, Made at me through the press, and, staggering back With stroke on stroke the horse and horseman, came As comes a pillar of electric cloud, Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains, And shadowing down the champaign till it strikes On a wood, and takes, and breaks, and cracks, and splits, And twists the grain with such a roar that Earth Reels, and the herdsmen cry; for everything Game way before him: only Florian, he That loved me closer than his own right eye, Thrust in between; but Arac rode him down:

And Cyril seeing it, pushed against the Prince, With Psyche's colour round his helmet, tough, Strong, supple, sinew-corded, apt at arms;But tougher, heavier, stronger, he that smote And threw him: last I spurred; I felt my veins Stretch with fierce heat; a moment hand to hand, And sword to sword, and horse to horse we hung, Till I struck out and shouted; the blade glanced, I did but shear a feather, and dream and truth Flowed from me; darkness closed me; and I fell.

Home they brought her warrior dead:

She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:

All her maidens, watching, said, 'She must weep or she will die.'

Then they praised him, soft and low, Called him worthy to be loved, Truest friend and noblest foe;Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place, Lightly to the warrior stept, Took the face-cloth from the face;Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years, Set his child upon her knee--Like summer tempest came her tears--

'Sweet my child, I live for thee.'

同类推荐
  • 经络考

    经络考

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 老子解畧

    老子解畧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 根本说一切有部苾芻尼毗奈耶

    根本说一切有部苾芻尼毗奈耶

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • The Quest of the Golden Girl

    The Quest of the Golden Girl

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 郑风

    郑风

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 天外飞来一只狐

    天外飞来一只狐

    作为三界史上最色的狐狸,她见到貌美如花,倾国倾城的青鸾帝君,竟岿然不动,见到衣衫半掩,青丝掩面的魔帝大人,竟一脚踢了上去。可见到凡间红颜祸水的太子殿下,她竟hold不住了。“公子救小女子一命,小女子以身相许可好?”“不好,小生自愧配不上姑娘,姑娘还是另择良人吧。”
  • 有超能力者存在的世界

    有超能力者存在的世界

    这是一个超能力者与未来科技并存的世界,生活在这样一个充满奇迹的世界中的高中生东阳男生,一直渴望着平静与安定,然而每天却又不得不在不平凡中渡过。究竟什么时候才能过上自己想要的生活呢,谁也不得而知.....
  • 绝宠谪仙妻

    绝宠谪仙妻

    他是令各国国主忍气吞声不敢招惹的夜流沙神秘煞主,她只是魂穿而来的小小谪仙!天降异象,传言妖邪与神器一并现世,他夺神器她亦要抢神器。于是乎,因为这共同的目标他霸道地定下规矩:“普天之下能驱动神器的人只有你,我帮你得到神器,你要帮我做成三件事!”她笑靥如花点头如捣蒜,心里却在暗自腹诽:事成之后我就拍拍屁股走人,你就是翻遍全世界也找不到我。他亦不是好蒙的:就算你逃到天堂地狱,我也能把你给找到,然后折断你飞走的翅膀打断你逃跑的双腿,看你还能跑到什么地方去!双掌相击,她得意,他冷笑。然而,当真相一步步揭开的时候,他不是他她也不是她,整个事件已经朝着一种无法预知的后果发展……
  • 无限之拳神

    无限之拳神

    格斗游戏爱好者姜林无意中获得拳神系统,可与各位面(武侠、三国、街霸、龙珠、漫威等)格斗达人过招,只要胜出便可获得其绝技和相应积分,积分可兑换一切:武器、战技、异能等…在与政府、吸血鬼、异能者和修真者的一系列恩怨纠葛中实力突飞猛进,最后进阶拳神,进入大宇宙...想不到,拳神系统竟是格斗终极达人开发出来寻找战友用的,旨在共同对抗虫族、机械族,守护人类宇宙...
  • 暖哎心

    暖哎心

    什么!高富帅抢女友?看穷小子如何惊天大逆转,抱得美人归。
  • 姻差阳错,BOSS的神秘妻

    姻差阳错,BOSS的神秘妻

    她是女白领艾欣,却与千金小姐结交为闺蜜。可是千金闺蜜所拥有的一切原本是属于艾欣的。只因二十多年前的一场不可抗力的人祸使两人的命运发生置换。谁能想到最亲近的人反而是危险的,而看似危险的人实则是真贵人。千金闺蜜的父亲一眼看中了艾欣,让她有了防备之心,而真相却令人惊讶。千金闺蜜与屌丝男友订婚,其男友却掩藏了真实目的。无意间救助的美男让艾欣爱得迷醉,却感觉他很神秘,情感之路跌宕而扑朔迷离。她以为他是个危险,却不知他隐瞒了富家公子的身份,佯装成屌丝男只为一个难言之隐。种种原本调理的关系,因为身份的改变而逐渐颠覆,使情感和关系变得错综复杂,挑战心理底线。情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • TFBOYS我们一起走过的日子

    TFBOYS我们一起走过的日子

    “王俊凯我们不可能了”“晴,为什么,这是误会听我解释啊”“滚”——“王源,你太让我失望了”“我。。。我错了,对不起”“哼,你句对不起就没事了?滚,别在让我看到你”“梓儿你等着我一定会把你追回来的”——“千玺,我们没缘了”“依依。。我。。”“走吧”“。。。。。”他们之间发什么了,请阅读此文。。。。。
  • A Face Illumined

    A Face Illumined

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 恐惧之翼

    恐惧之翼

    暂无介绍,我是新手,不过请大家多多关注我的小说哦,谢谢。
  • 那年秋天下雨了

    那年秋天下雨了

    为了兄弟,他曾把枪指向心爱的女人,那一枪救回兄弟命,却粉碎他的爱情。七年后,两人重逢,她已经从绝望中走出来,他却依旧在原地守候……--情节虚构,请勿模仿