s: Round the leafy scrolls and fretted niches


s: Some will praise, some blame, and, soon forgetting,


s: But I think, when years have floated onward,


s: And the stone is grey, and dim, and old,


s: And the hand forgotten that has carved it,


s: And the heart that dreamt it still and cold;


s: There may come some weary soul, o'erladen


s: Or, it may be, fretted with life's turmoil,


s: Then, I think those stony hands will open,


s: And the tendrils will unroll, and teach him


s: And the birds' and angels' wings shake downward


s: Meaning in that quaint and ancient scroll,


s: You write and think of me, my friend, with pity;


s: While you are basking in the light of Rome,


s: Shut up within the heart of this great city,


s: You think my life debarred all rest or pleasure,


s: Chained all day to my ledger and my pen;


s: Too sickly even to use my little leisure


s: To bear me from the strife and din of men.


s: Well, it is true; yet, now the days are longer,


s: And slowly crawl (summer has made me stronger)


s: Just to the nearest outskirt of the town.


s: There a wide Common, blackened though and dreary


s: With factory smoke, spreads outward to the West;


s: I lie down on the parched-up grass, if weary,


s: So might a King, turning to Art's rich treasure,


s: At evening, when the cares of state were done,


s: Enter his royal gallery, drinking pleasure


s: Slowly from each great picture, one by one.


s: Towards the West I turn my weary spirit,


s: And watch my pictures: one each night is mine.


s: Earth and my soul, sick of day's toil, inherit


s: A portion of that luminous peace divine.


s: There I have seen a sunset's crimson glory,


s: Burn as if earth were one great Altar's blaze;


s: Or, like the closing of a piteous story,


s: Light up the misty world with dying rays.


s: There I have seen the Clouds, in pomp and splendour,


s: Their gold and purple banners all unfurl;


s: There I have watched colours, more faint and tender


s: Than pure and delicate tints upon a pearl.


s: Skies strewn with roses fading, fading slowly,


s: While one star trembling watched the daylight die;


s: Or deep in gloom a sunset, hidden wholly,


s: Save through gold rents torn in a violet sky.


s: Of far-off tranquil light; the gates of Heaven


s: Will lead us grandly to as calm a place.


s: Or stern dark walls of cloudy mountain ranges


s: Hid all the wonders that we knew must be;


s: While, far on high, some little white clouds changes'


s: Revealed the glory they alone could see.


s: Or in wild wrath the affrighted clouds lay shattered,


s: All in a wealth of ruined splendour scattered,


s: Save one strange light on distant silver seas.


s: What land or time can claim the Master Painter,


s: Whose art could teach him half such gorgeous dyes?


s: Or skill so rare, but purer hues and fainter


s: So there I wait, until the shade has lengthened,


s: And night's blue misty curtain floated down;


s: Then, with my heart calmed, and my spirit strengthened,


s: I crawl once more back to the sultry town.


s: What Monarch, then, has nobler recreations


s: Than mine?  Or where the great and classic Land


s: Whose wealth of Art delights the gathered nations


s: That owns a Picture Gallery half as grand?


s: "Never again!" vow hearts when reunited,


s: Nor bitter sorrow, veiled in scornful pride,


s: Shall feign indifference, or affect disdain,--


s: "Never again!" so sobs, in broken accents,


s: A soul laid prostrate at a holy shrine,--


s: "Once more, once more forgive, oh Lord, and pardon,


s: My wayward life shall bend to love divine;


s: And never more shall sin its whiteness stain,--


s: "Never again!" so speaketh one forsaken,


s: In the blank desolate passion of despair,--


s: "Never again shall the bright dream I cherished


s: Delude my heart, for bitter truth is there,--


s: The angel, Hope, shall still thy cruel pain


s: "Never again!" so speaks the sudden silence,


s: When round the hearth gathers each well-known face,--


s: But one is missing, and no future presence,


s: However dear, can fill that vacant place;


s: For ever shall the burning thought remain,--


s: "Never again!" so--but beyond our hearing--


s: Never again shall earthly care and sorrow


s: Weigh down the wings that bear those souls on high;


s: Listen, oh earth, and hear that glorious strain,--


s: Stir not in that quiet hour: through the valley, calm and stilly,


s: Such, of all day's changing hours, is the fittest and the meetest


s: Words are lower, for the twilight seems rebuking sad repining,


s: And wild murmur and rebellion, as all childish and in vain;


s: So they paced the shady lime-walk in that twilight dim and holy,


s: Philip's young hopes of ambition, ever changing, ever altering,


s: Needed Mildred's gentle presence even to make successes sweet.


s: But her gentle spirit long had learnt, unquestioning, submitting,


s: That gave such a humble office, all unworthy and unfitting,


s: To the genius of the village, who was born for something great.


s: Could she waver when he bade her take the burden of decision,


s: Rose in glory for his future, check it for her sake alone?


s: "It will charm my peaceful leisure, sanctify my daily toiling,


s: Dawn of day saw Philip speeding on his road to the Great City,


s: How unpitying and relentless busy life met this new morrow,


s: Earth, and sky, and man unheeding that her joy had passed away.


s: Nothing true save Philip's letters and the ring upon her breast.


s: Letters telling how he struggled, for some plan or vision aiming,


s: Lean as fondly, as completely, as thou willest--but confessing


s: Little means were there around her to make farther, wider ranges,


s: And he wrote it all to Mildred, as if praise were only pleasure,


s: As if fame were only honour, when he laid them in her hands.


s: Mildred heard it without wonder, as a sure result expected,


s: For how could it fail, since merit and renown go side by side:


s: He returned with proud assurance half disdainful and half cold.


s: When he left the quiet village, and took back his bride to town.


s: Sad it may be to be longing, with a patience faint and weary,


s: For a hope deferred--and sadder still to see it fade and fall;


s: It was vain to strive or struggle, vainer still to mourn or long.


s: He renounced his life, to pay her for the patience of her youth.


s: And remembering Philip's fancy, that so long ago was spoken,


s: Grieving sorely, grieving truly, with a tender care and sorrow,


s: Philip watched the slow, sure fading of his gentle, patient wife;


s: Peace at last.  Of peace eternal is her calm sweet smile a token.


s: Or light our sorrow with its starry eyes;


s: We killed our Love, we took its life away


s: And so we watch it, since that cruel day,


s: Long years beside us.  Time and Death might try


s: Whose strength could every other stroke defy


s: Our dead again.  Vain are the tears we weep,


s: Our buried Love: its grave lies dark and deep


s: Shall live through memory for you still;


s: With ghosts; their very look would scare


s: The flash that struck thy tree,--no more


s: To shelter thee,--lets Heaven's blue floor


s: Then thou mayst take thy loneliest fears,


s: And through thy anguish there outspread,


s: May ask that God's great love would shed


s: I think thou wouldst rejoice, and not complain.


s: I think that they would seem all clear, and wise, and bright.


s: Wisdom and sight are well, but Trust is best.


s: Thy heart, my own, still beats in Heaven


s: The Heavens themselves look brighter, love,


s: Dear, I tried to write you such a letter


s: Written Love is poor; one word were better;


s: I can tell you all: fears, doubts unheeding,


s: While I can be near you, hold your hand,


s: Looking right into your eyes, and reading


s: Yet I wrote it through, then lingered, thinking


s: Of its reaching you,--what hour, what day;


s: Till I felt my heart and courage sinking


s: "Will my letter fall," I wondered sadly,


s: "It may find her too absorbed to read it,


s: Save with hurried glance and careless air:


s: Sad and weary, she may scarcely heed it;


s: "Shall I--dare I--risk the chances?" slowly


s: Something,--was it shyness, love, or pride?--


s: Chilled my heart, and checked my courage wholly;


s: Then I leant against the casement, turning


s: Where the golden evening light was burning,


s: Till my heart throbbed back again to rest.


s: And I thought: "Love's soul is not in fetters,


s: Neither space nor time keep souls apart;


s: Since I cannot--dare not--send my letters,


s: Through the silence I will send my heart.


s: "If, perhaps now, while my tears are falling,


s: She will hear my Love's far echo calling,


s: "She will hear, while twilight shades enfold her,


s: All the gathered Love she knows so well--


s: Deepest Love my words have ever told her,


s: "Wondering at the strange mysterious power


s: That has touched her heart, then she will say:-


s: "If, as well may be, to-night has found her


s: Through the words and claims that gather round her


s: She will hear just one, half-smothered sigh;


s: "Or will marvel why, without her seeking,


s: Or, while listening to another speaking,


s: So I dreamed, and watched the stars' far splendour


s: Glimmering on the azure darkness, start,--


s: While the star of trust rose bright and tender,


s: Through the twilight shadows of my heart.


s: "While her little soft arms close tighter


s: Well, I must not cry on your hair, dear,


s: "If you break your plaything yourself, dear,


s: "People say things cannot be helped, dear,


s: For if things could be helped or altered,


s: "They say, too, that tears are quite useless


s: "Though wise people would call that folly,


s: We won't mind what they say, my Effie;--


s: Or look up through the long curled lashes


s: "You long--don't you, dear?--for the Genii,


s: "But hark! there is Nurse calling Effie!


s: There's one kiss for her golden tresses,


s: There are more things in Heaven and Earth, than we


s: Can dream of, or than nature understands;


s: We learn not through our poor philosophy


s: What hidden chords are touched by unseen hands.


s: The present hour repeats upon its strings


s: Echoes of some vague dream we have forgot;


s: Dim voices whisper half-remembered things,


s: And when we pause to listen,--answer not.


s: Forebodings come: we know not how, or whence,


s: Shadowing a nameless fear upon the soul,


s: And stir within our hearts a subtler sense,


s: Than light may read, or wisdom may control.


s: And who can tell what secret links of thought


s: Bind heart to heart?  Unspoken things are heard,


s: As if within our deepest selves was brought


s: The soul, perhaps, of some unuttered word.


s: But, though a veil of shadow hangs between


s: That hidden life, and what we see and hear,


s: Round the rich, ripe peaches on the wall,


s: And the south wind sighing in the trees,


s: And the dead leaves rustling as they fall:


s: While the swallows, one by one, are gathering,


s: And the golden woods are bathed in light,


s: While the swallows in the blue air wheeling,


s: Where the swallows wing their way at last,


s: And our hearts perchance, as sadly wandering,


s: Her home--each flower that breathed there,


s: The poor weak child will need her: . . .


s: Of the wind that swept o'er land and sea.


s: Through the wind that roared upon the sea.


s: The King's three daughters stood on the terrace,


s: The hanging terrace, so broad and green,


s: Which keeps the sea from the marble Palace,


s: Sighed Princess May, "Will it last much longer,


s: Time throbs so slow and my Heart so quick;


s: For Hope deferred makes the spirit sick."


s: But Princess Gwendoline smiled and kissed her:-


s: The Future's fathomless mine of treasures,


s: All countless hordes of possible pleasures,


s: Might bring their store to my feet in vain."


s: Sighed Princess Alice as night grew nearer:-


s: "So soon, so soon, is the daylight fled!


s: And oh, how fast comes the dark to-morrow,


s: Who hides, perhaps in her veil of sorrow,


s: But Princess Gwendoline kissed her, sighing,--


s: Those who still dread, are not quite forsaken;


s: When noon ruled from the heavens, and man


s: His voice had ceased, his grace had flown,


s: Nothing is our own: we hold our pleasures


s: One by one life robs us of our treasures;


s: They are ours, and hold in faithful keeping


s: Cruel life can never stir that sleeping,


s: Justice pales; truth fades; stars fall from Heaven;


s: How the Children leave us: and no traces


s: Gone, for ever gone; and in their places,


s: Yet we have some little ones, still ours;


s: Which we kissed one day and hid with flowers,


s: When our Joy is lost--and life will take it--


s: Save with some strange, cruel sting, to make it


s: Death, more tender-hearted, leaves to sorrow


s: We shall find, in some far, bright to-morrow,


s: Is Love ours, and do we dream we know it,


s: Bound with all our heart-strings, all our own?


s: Death's last kiss has been the mystic sign


s: So when Fate would fain besiege our city,


s: Death the Angel, comes in love and pity,


s: And to save our treasures, claims them all.


s: Dearest, although I love you so, my heart


s: Answers a thousand claims beside your own.


s: I love--what do I not love? earth and air


s: Find space within my heart, and myriad things


s: You would not deign to heed, are cherished there,


s: Of light, and warmth, and music that have nurst


s: Her tender buds to blossoms . . . and you know


s: I love the winter dearly too, . . . but then


s: Bleak, cold, and stormy, you returned again,


s: When you had been those weary months away.


s: I love the Stars like friends; so many nights


s: I gazed at them, when you were far from me,


s: Till I grew blind with tears . . . those far-off lights


s: Could watch you, whom I longed in vain to see.


s: Shut up within their petals close and fast:


s: You have forgotten, dear: but they and I


s: I love, too, to be loved; all loving praise


s: Seems like a crown upon my Life,--to make


s: It better worth the giving, and to raise


s: Still nearer to your own the heart you take.


s: I love all good and noble souls;--I heard


s: One speak of you but lately, and for days


s: Only to think of it, my soul was stirred


s: In tender memory of such generous praise.


s: I love all those who love you; all who owe


s: Even for those poorer hearts who once could know,


s: And once could love you, and can now forget.


s: Well, is my heart so narrow--I, who spare


s: My favourite books in special tender care,


s: And prize them as a miser does his gold?


s: While summer twilights faded in the sky;


s: Will you be jealous?  Did you guess before


s: I loved so many things?--Still you the best:-


s: Oh, more a thousand times than all the rest!


s: And Life, with its fierce, brief Tempests,


s: With that trust which leans on the Future,


s: How that young, light heart would have pitied


s: It is strange; but Life's currents drift us


s: All is still, save the Clock, that is ticking


s: And he thinks of his home and his loved ones


s: He has wandered for hours in the snow-drift,


s: And so lies down to dream of his children


s: And the grateful tears of God's poor ones


s: And let the snowdrop's trembling whiteness


s: She must spread broad showers of daisies


s: Give us, Oh, Lord, fresh hopes in Heaven,


s: Which, as air breathed over its strings,


s: "Linger," I cried, "oh radiant Time! thy power


s: Has nothing more to give; life is complete:


s: Let but the perfect Present, hour by hour,


s: "And Love,--the future can but mar its splendour,


s: Change can but dim the glory of its youth;


s: Time has no star more faithful or more tender,


s: To crown its constancy or light its truth."


s: But Time passed on in spite of prayer or pleading,


s: Through storm and peril; but that life might gain


s: A Peace through strife all other peace exceeding,


s: Fresh joy from sorrow, and new hope from pain.


s: And since Love lived when all save Love was dying,


s: And, passed through fire, grew stronger than before:-


s: Dear, you know why, in double faith relying,


s: I prize the Past much, but the Present more.


s: Of one heart's treasures, and the weight


s: And hearts are strung so that one touch,


s: You well might fear--if Love's sole claim


s: Till fettered Love forgets its strength,


s: And bids Love rise again and be eternal, mighty, pure, and free.


s: The deaths ye died I have watched beside,


s: Old as the chicken that kitmutgars bring


s: Was dowered with a tenor voice of super-Santley tone.


s: His views on equitation were, perhaps, a trifle queer;


s: He had no seat worth mentioning, but oh! he had an ear.


s: He clubbed his wretched company a dozen times a day,


s: He used to quit his charger in a parabolic way,


s: His method of saluting was the joy of all beholders,


s: But Ahasuerus Jenkins had a head upon his shoulders.


s: He took two months to Simla when the year was at the spring,


s: And underneath the deodars eternally did sing.


s: He warbled like a bulbul, but particularly at


s: Cornelia Agrippina who was musical and fat.


s: From April to October on a plump retaining fee,


s: Supplied, of course, per mensem, by the Indian Treasury.


s: Cornelia used to sing with him, and Jenkins used to play;


s: He praised unblushingly her notes, for he was false as they:


s: So when the winds of April turned the budding roses brown,


s: Cornelia told her husband: "Tom, you mustn't send him down."


s: They haled him from his regiment which didn't much regret him;


s: And draw his plump retaining fee--which means his double pay.


s: Now, ever after dinner, when the coffeecups are brought,


s: Ahasuerus waileth o'er the grand pianoforte;


s: And, thanks to fair Cornelia, his fame hath waxen great,


s: And Ahasuerus Jenkins is a power in the State.


s: And I muse in my bed on the reasons that led


s: Each bridge that he makes he either buckles or breaks,


s: And I can't understand why you gave him your hand,


s: For They bow and They smile in an affable style


s: Of a highly-paid post which is claimed by a host


s: What is the spell that you manage so well,


s: RUSTUM BEG of Kolazai--slightly backward native state


s: Lusted for a C. S. I.,--so began to sanitate.


s: Built a Jail and Hospital--nearly built a City drain--


s: Strange departures made he then--yea, Departments stranger still,


s: Talked of noble aims and high, hinted of a future fine


s: For the state of Kolazai, on a strictly Western line.


s: Rajah Rustum held his peace; lowered octroi dues a half;


s: Organized a State Police; purified the. Civil Staff;


s: Settled cess and tax afresh in a very liberal way;


s: Cut temptations of the flesh--also cut the Bukhshi's pay;


s: Roused his Secretariat to a fine Mahratta fury,


s: By a Hookum hinting at supervision of dasturi;


s: Turned the State of Kolazai very nearly upside-down;


s: When the end of May was nigh, waited his achievement crown.


s: Stood against the Rajah's name nothing more than C. I. E.!


s: Things were lively for a week in the State of Kolazai.


s: Even now the people speak of that time regretfully.


s: How he disendowed the Jail--stopped at once the City drain;


s: Turned to beauty fair and frail--got his senses back again;


s: Doubled taxes, cesses, all; cleared away each new-built thana;


s: Turned the two-lakh Hospital into a superb Zenana;


s: Heaped upon the Bukhshi Sahib wealth and honors manifold;


s: Clad himself in Eastern garb--squeezed his people as of old.


s: Happy, happy Kolazai!  Never more  will Rustum Beg


s: Play to catch the Viceroy's eye. He prefers the "simpkin" peg.


s: Though tangled and twisted the course of true love


s: No tangle's so tangled it cannot improve


s: Ere the steamer bore him Eastward, Sleary was engaged to marry


s: Sleary's pay was very modest; Sleary was the other way.


s: Who can cook a two-plate dinner on eight poor rupees a day?


s: Certainly an impecunious Subaltern was not a catch,


s: But the Boffkins knew that Minnie mightn't make another match.


s: Anyhow, the billet carried pay enough for him to marry--


s: Did he, therefore, jilt Miss Boffkin--impulse of a baser mind?


s: No! He started epileptic fits of an appalling kind.


s: Frequently in public places his affliction used to smite


s: Sleary with distressing vigour--always in the Boffkins' sight.


s: Ere a week was over Minnie weepingly returned his ring,


s: Told him his "unhappy weakness" stopped all thought of marrying.


s: Sleary bore the information with a chastened holy joy,--


s: Epileptic fits don't matter in Political employ,--


s: Year by year, in pious patience, vengeful Mrs. Boffkin sits


s: Waiting for the Sleary babies to develop Sleary's fits.


s: By the Laws of the Family Circle 'tis written in letters of brass


s: Now Exeter Battleby Tring had laboured from boyhood to eld


s: Black as the raven his garb, and his heresies jettier still--


s: Hinting that Railways required lifetimes of study and knowledge--


s: Wherefore the Little Tin Gods harried their little tin souls,


s: Seeing he came not from Chatham, jingled no spurs at his heels,


s: Knowing that, nevertheless, was he first on the Government rolls


s: Letters not seldom they wrote him, "having the honour to state,"


s: It would be better for all men if he were laid on the shelf.


s: Much would accrue to his bank-book, an he consented to wait


s: Until the Little Tin Gods built him a berth for himself,


s: Thus did the Little Tin Gods (long may Their Highnesses thrive!)


s: Silence his mouth with rupees, keeping their Circle intact;


s: We have another viceroy now,--those days are dead and done


s: Of Delilah Aberyswith and depraved Ulysses Gunne.


s: Delilah Aberyswith was a lady--not too young--


s: With a perfect taste in dresses and a badly-bitted tongue,


s: With a thirst for information, and a greater thirst for praise,


s: And a little house in Simla in the Prehistoric Days.


s: By reason of her marriage to a gentleman in power,


s: Delilah was acquainted with the gossip of the hour;


s: And many little secrets, of the half-official kind,


s: Were whispered to Delilah, and she bore them all in mind.


s: She patronized extensively a man, Ulysses Gunne,


s: Whose mode of earning money was a low and shameful one.


s: He wrote for certain papers, which, as everybody knows,


s: Is worse than serving in a shop or scaring off the crows.


s: He praised her "queenly beauty" first; and, later on, he hinted


s: At the "vastness of her intellect" with compliment unstinted.


s: He went with her a-riding, and his love for her was such


s: That he lent her all his horses and--she galled them very much.


s: One day, THEY brewed a secret of a fine financial sort;


s: It related to Appointments, to a Man and a Report.


s: 'Twas almost worth the keeping,--only seven people knew it--


s: And Gunne rose up to seek the truth and patiently pursue it.


s: It was a Viceroy's Secret, but--perhaps the wine was red--


s: Perhaps an Aged Councillor had lost his aged head--


s: Perhaps Delilah's eyes were bright--Delilah's whispers sweet--


s: The Aged Member told her what 'twere treason to repeat.


s: Ulysses went a-riding, and they talked of love and flowers;


s: Ulysses went a-calling, and he called for several hours;


s: Ulysses went a-waltzing, and Delilah helped him dance--


s: Ulysses let the waltzes go, and waited for his chance.


s: The summer sun was setting, and the summer air was still,


s: The couple went a-walking in the shade of Summer Hill.


s: The wasteful sunset faded out in Turkish-green and gold,


s: Ulysses pleaded softly, and-- that bad Delilah told!


s: Next morn, a startled Empire learnt the all-important news;


s: Next week, the Aged Councillor was shaking in his shoes.


s: Next month, I met Delilah and she did not show the least


s: Hesitation in affirming that Ulysses was a "beast."


s: We have another Viceroy now, those days are dead and done--


s: Of Delilah Aberyswith and most mean Ulysses Gunne!


s: Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, pride of Bow Bazaar,


s: Owner of a native press, "Barrishter-at-Lar,"


s: Waited on the Government with a claim to wear


s: Sabres by the bucketful, rifles by the pair.


s: Then the Indian Government winked a wicked wink,


s: Said to Chunder Mookerjee: "Stick to pen and ink.


s: They are safer implements, but, if you insist,


s: We will let you carry arms wheresoe'er you list."


s: Hurree Chunder Mookerjee sought the gunsmith and


s: Bought the tubes of Lancaster, Ballard, Dean, and Bland,


s: Bought a shiny bowie-knife, bought a town-made sword,


s: Jingled like a carriage-horse when he went abroad.


s: But the Indian Government, always keen to please,


s: Also gave permission to horrid men like these--


s: Yar Mahommed Yusufzai, down to kill or steal,


s: Chimbu Singh from Bikaneer, Tantia the Bhil;


s: Killar Khan the Marri chief, Jowar Singh the Sikh,


s: He was a Wahabi; last, little Boh Hla-oo


s: Took advantage of the Act--took a Snider too.


s: They were unenlightened men, Ballard knew them not.


s: They procured their swords and guns chiefly on the spot;


s: And the lore of centuries, plus a hundred fights,


s: Made them slow to disregard one another's rights.


s: All those hairy gentlemen out of foreign parts


s: Said: "The good old days are back--let us go to war!"


s: Swaggered down the Grand Trunk Road into Bow Bazaar,


s: Nubbee Baksh Punjabi Jat found a hide-bound flail;


s: Chimbu Singh from Bikaneer oiled his Tonk jezail;


s: Yar Mahommed Yusufzai spat and grinned with glee


s: As he ground the butcher-knife of the Khyberee.


s: Jowar Singh the Sikh procured sabre, quoit, and mace,


s: Abdul Huq, Wahabi, jerked his dagger from its place,


s: While amid the jungle-grass danced and grinned and jabbered


s: Little Boh Hla-oo and cleared his dah-blade from the scabbard.


s: What became of Mookerjee? Soothly, who can say?


s: Jowar Singh is reticent, Chimbu Singh is mute.


s: But the belts of all of them simply bulge with loot.


s: What became of Ballard's guns? Afghans black and grubby


s: Sell them for their silver weight to the men of Pubbi;


s: And the shiny bowie-knife and the town-made sword are


s: Hanging in a Marri camp just across the Border.


s: What became of Mookerjee? Ask Mahommed Yar


s: Prodding Siva's sacred bull down the Bow Bazaar.


s: Speak to placid Nubbee Baksh--question land and sea--


s: Ask the Indian Congressmen--only don't ask me!


s: Now we had arranged, through notes exchanged


s: With a kiss or two (which is nothing to you),


s: She turned her head and the name she said


s: But ere I could speak, with a smothered shriek


s: Had cloaked the spouse of Sir Julian House,


s: And the name she said when she turned her head


s: Shun--shun the Bowl! That fatal, facile drink


s: Has ruined many geese who dipped their quills in 't;


s: Bribe, murder, marry, but steer clear of Ink


s: Save when you write receipts for paid-up bills in 't.


s: There may be silver in the "blue-black"--all


s: Boanerges Blitzen, servant of the Queen,


s: Is a dismal failure--is a Might-have-been.


s: Rise to high position through a ready pen.


s: With the selfsame weapon, can attain as high."


s: Only he did not possess when he made the trial,


s: Something more than ordinary journalistic prose.]


s: Never young Civilian's prospects were so bright,


s: Till an Indian paper found that he could write:


s: Never young Civilian's prospects were so dark,


s: When the wretched Blitzen wrote to make his mark.


s: Certainly he scored it, bold, and black, and firm,


s: In that Indian paper--made his seniors squirm,


s: Quoted office scandals, wrote the tactless truth--


s: Was there ever known a more misguided youth?


s: When the Rag he wrote for praised his plucky game,


s: Boanerges Blitzen felt that this was Fame;


s: When the men he wrote of shook their heads and swore,


s: Posed as Young Ithuriel, resolute and grim,


s: Till he found promotion didn't come to him;


s: Till he found that reprimands weekly were his lot,


s: Till he found his furlough strangely hard to win,


s: Then it seemed to dawn on him something wasn't right--


s: Boanerges Blitzen put it down to "spite";


s: Languished in a District desolate and dry;


s: Watched the Local Government yearly pass him by;


s: Wondered where the hitch was; called it most unfair.


s: That was seven years ago--and he still is there!


s: "Thus," quoth that most veracious man:--


s: It was an August evening and, in snowy garments clad,


s: I paid a round of visits in the lines of Hezabad;


s: When, presently, my Waler saw, and did not like at all,


s: A Commissariat elephant careering down the Mall.


s: I couldn't see the driver, and across my mind it rushed


s: That that Commissariat elephant had suddenly gone musth.


s: I didn't care to meet him, and I couldn't well get down,


s: So I let the Waler have it, and we headed for the town.


s: Till the Waler jumped a bullock just above the City Drain;


s: And the next that I remember was a hurricane of squeals,


s: And the creature making toothpicks of my five-foot patent wheels.


s: He seemed to want the owner, so I fled, distraught with fear,


s: To the Main Drain sewage-outfall while he snorted in my ear--


s: Heard it trumpet on my shoulder--tried to crawl a little higher--


s: While the trunk was feeling blindly for a purchase on my toes!


s: It missed me by a fraction, but my hair was turning grey


s: Before they called the drivers up and dragged the brute away.


s: Then I sought the City Elders, and my words were very plain.


s: You may hold with surface-drainage, and the sun-for-garbage cure,


s: I believe in well-flushed culverts. . . .


s: And, if you don't believe me, get shikarred yourself. That's all.


s: Now Jones had left his new-wed bride to keep his house in order,


s: And hied away to the Hurrum Hills above the Afghan border,


s: To sit on a rock with a heliograph; but ere he left he taught


s: His wife the working of the Code that sets the miles at naught.


s: And Love had made him very sage, as Nature made her fair;


s: So Cupid and Apollo linked , per heliograph, the pair.


s: At dawn, across the Hurrum Hills, he flashed her counsel wise--


s: At e'en, the dying sunset bore her husband's homilies.


s: He warned her 'gainst seductive youths in scarlet clad and gold,


s: As much as 'gainst the blandishments paternal of the old;


s: But kept his gravest warnings for (hereby the ditty hangs)


s: That snowy-haired Lothario, Lieutenant-General Bangs.


s: "Was ever General Officer addressed as 'dear' before?


s: The artless Aide-de-camp was mute; the gilded Staff were still,


s: But, howsoever Love be blind, the world at large hath eyes.]


s: With damnatory dot and dash he heliographed his wife


s: Some interesting details of the General's private life.


s: The artless Aide-de-camp was mute, the shining Staff were still,


s: And red and ever redder grew the General's shaven gill.


s: And this is what he said at last (his feelings matter not):--


s: All honour unto Bangs, for ne'er did Jones thereafter know


s: By word or act official who read off that helio.


s: But the tale is on the Frontier, and from Michni to Mooltan


s: They know the worthy General as "that most immoral man."


s: None whole or clean, " we cry, "or free from stain


s: The Last Department where nor fraud nor fools,


s: Nor grade nor greed, shall trouble us again.


s: Fear, Favour, or Affection--what are these


s: To the grim Head who claims our services?


s: Delay that pukka step, miscalled "decease";


s: When leave, long overdue, none can deny;


s: Our thriftless, bullion-minting Treasury


s: Each in his strait, wood-scantled office pent,


s: No longer Brown reverses Smith's appeals,


s: And One, long since a pillar of the Court,


s: As mud between the beams thereof is wrought;


s: And One who wrote on phosphates for the crops


s: These be the glorious ends whereto we pass--


s: And He shall see the mallie steals the slab


s: For currie-grinder, and for goats the grass.


s: A breath of wind, a Border bullet's flight,


s: A draught of water, or a horse's fright--


s: Ceases, the punkah stops, and falls the night


s: For you or Me. Do those who live decline


s: The step that offers, or their work resign?


s: Five hundred men can take your place or mine.


s: Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--


s: (We called her the woman who did not care),


s: But the fool he called her his lady fair


s: Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste


s: (And now we know that she never could know)


s: (And it wasn't the least what the lady meant),


s: Oh the toil we lost and the spoil we lost


s: The fool we stripped to his foolish hide


s: Which she might have seen when she threw him aside--


s: So some of him lived but the most of him died--


s: And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame


s: It's coming to know that she never knew why


s: (Seeing at last she could never know why)


s: Now the New Year, reviving last Year's Debt,


s: The Thoughtful Fisher casteth wide his Net;


s: Imports indeed are gone with all their Dues--


s: Pay--and I promise by the Dust of Spring,


s: Comfort, Ye have Them now a thousandfold--


s: I swore--but did I mean it when I swore?


s: And then, and then, We wandered to the Hills,


s: And so the Little Less became Much More.


s: I know not how the wretched Thing is done,


s: Let Scribes spit Blood and Sulphur as they please,


s: Or Statesmen call me foolish--Heed not you.


s: Behold, I greet you with an empty Till--


s: Seek not the Reason of the Dearth, but fill.


s: For if I sinned and fell, where lies the Gain


s: Of Knowledge? Would it ease you of your Pain


s: "Who hath not Prudence"--what was it I said,


s: Of Her who paints her Eyes and tires Her Head,


s: And gibes and mocks the People in the Street,


s: And fawns upon them for Her thriftless Bread?


s: Hath cast off Prudence, and Her End shall be


s: Destruction . . . Brethren, of your Bounty


s: She calls me "darling," "pet," and "dear,"


s: ("Saint @Proxed's ever was the Church for peace")


s: It was an artless Bandar, and he danced upon a pine,


s: And much I wondered how he lived, and where the beast might dine,


s: I slept the sleep of idleness and dreamt that Bandar spoke.


s: He said: "O man of many clothes! Sad crawler on the Hills!


s: Observe, I know not Ranken's shop, nor Ranken's monthly bills;


s: I take no heed to trousers or the coats that you call dress;


s: Nor am I plagued with little cards for little drinks at Mess.


s: "I steal the bunnia's grain at morn, at noon and eventide,


s: (For he is fat and I am spare), I roam the mountain side,


s: I follow no man's carriage, and no, never in my life


s: Have I flirted at Peliti's with another Bandar's wife.


s: "O man of futile fopperies--unnecessary wraps;


s: I own no ponies in the hills, I drive no tall-wheeled traps;


s: I buy me not twelve-button gloves, 'short-sixes' eke, or rings,


s: Nor do I waste at Hamilton's my wealth on 'pretty things.'


s: "I quarrel with my wife at home, we never fight abroad;


s: But Mrs. B. has grasped the fact I am her only lord.


s: I never heard of fever--dumps nor debts depress my soul;


s: And I pity and despise you!" Here he poached my breakfast-roll.


s: His hide was very mangy, and his face was very red,


s: And ever and anon he scratched with energy his head.


s: His manners were not always nice, but how my spirit cried


s: To be an artless Bandar loose upon the mountain side!


s: So I answered: "Gentle Bandar, an inscrutable Decree


s: Makes thee a gleesome fleasome Thou, and me a wretched Me.


s: Go! Depart in peace, my brother, to thy home amid the pine;


s: Yet forget not once a mortal wished to change his lot for thine."


s: Scene.--The wooded heights of Simla. The Incarnation of


s: the Government of India in the raiment of the Angel of Plenty


s: "How sweet is the shepherd's sweet life!


s: And his tongue shall be filled with praise.


s: (largendo con sp.) Now this is the position,


s: Turkish Patrol, as able and intelligent Investigators wind


s: What is the state of the Nation? What is its occupation?


s: Hi! get along, get along, get along--lend us the information!


s: (dim.) Census the byle and the yabu--capture a first-class Babu,


s: Set him to file Gazetteers--Gazetteers . . .


s: (ff) What is the state of the Nation, etc., etc.


s: Interlude, from Nowhere in Particular, to stringed and Oriental


s: Our cattle reel beneath the yoke they bear--


s: The earth is iron and the skies are brass--


s: And faint with fervour of the flaming air


s: The well is dry beneath the village tree--


s: The young wheat withers ere it reach a span,


s: Pray, brothers, pray, but to no earthly King--


s: Lift up your hands above the blighted grain,


s: Look westward--if they please, the Gods shall bring


s: Look westward--bears the blue no brown cloud-bank?


s: Nay, it is written--wherefore should we fly?


s: On our own field and by our cattle's flank


s: Triumphal return to Simla of the Investigators, attired after


s: the manner of Dionysus, leading a pet tiger-cub in wreaths


s: of rhubarb-leaves, symbolical of India under medical treatment.


s: We have paid a particular visit to the affluent children of men.


s: Oh, the dom and the mag and the thakur and the thag,


s: And the bunnia and the ryot are as happy and as quiet


s: Yes, the jain and the jat in his stucco-fronted hut,


s: By the favour of the King, are as fat as anything,


s: How beautiful upon the Mountains--in peace reclining,


s: Thus to be assured that our people are unanimously dining.


s: (Cres.) How be-ewtiful upon the Mountains!


s: Hired Band,  brasses only, full chorus:--


s: That his strength might endure for a span--


s: Through six thin foreign sheets or more.


s: Have bought his ponies, guns, and traps.


s: Shall watch each flashing 'rickshaw-light


s: Dim dawn behind the tamarisks--the sky is saffron-yellow--


s: As the women in the village grind the corn,


s: And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow


s: That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.


s: Oh the white dust on the highway! Oh the stenches in the byway!


s: Oh the clammy fog that hovers o'er the earth;


s: Full day behind the tamarisks--the sky is blue and staring--


s: As the cattle crawl afield beneath the yoke,


s: Call on Rama, going slowly, as ye bear a brother lowly--


s: Call on Rama--he may hear, perhaps, your voice!


s: With our hymn-books and our psalters we appeal to other altars,


s: And today we bid "good Christian men rejoice!"


s: High noon behind the tamarisks--the sun is hot above us--


s: As at Home the Christmas Day is breaking wan.


s: And today we know the fulness of our gain.


s: Grey dusk behind the tamarisks--the parrots fly together--


s: And his last ray seems to mock us shackled in a lifelong tether.


s: That drags us back howe'er so far we roam.


s: If a year of life be lent her, if her temple's shrine we enter,


s: The door is shut--we may not look behind.


s: Black night behind the tamarisks--the owls begin their chorus--


s: As the conches from the temple scream and bray.


s: Call a truce, then, to our labors--let us feast with friends and


s: And be merry as the custom of our caste;


s: Pagett, M.P., was a liar, and a fluent liar therewith--


s: He spoke of the heat of India as the "Asian Solar Myth";


s: Came on a four months' visit, to "study the East," in November,


s: And I got him to sign an agreement vowing to stay till September.


s: March came in with the koil. Pagett was cool and gay,


s: Called me a "bloated Brahmin," talked of my "princely pay."


s: March went out with the roses. "Where is your heat?" said he.


s: "Coming," said I to Pagett, "Skittles!" said Pagett, M.P.


s: April began with the punkah, coolies, and prickly-heat,--


s: Pagett was dear to mosquitoes, sandflies found him a treat.


s: He grew speckled and mumpy--hammered, I grieve to say,


s: Aryan brothers who fanned him, in an illiberal way.


s: May set in with a dust-storm,--Pagett went down with the sun.


s: All the delights of the season tickled him one by one.


s: Imprimis--ten day's "liver"--due to his drinking beer;


s: Later, a dose of fever--slight, but he called it severe.


s: Dysent'ry touched him in June, after the Chota Bursat--


s: Lowered his portly person--made him yearn to depart.


s: He didn't call me a "Brahmin," or "bloated," or "overpaid,"


s: But seemed to think it a wonder that any one stayed.


s: July was a trifle unhealthy,--Pagett was ill with fear.


s: 'Called it the "Cholera Morbus," hinted that life was dear.


s: He babbled of "Eastern Exile," and mentioned his home with tears;


s: We reached a hundred and twenty once in the Court at noon,


s: (I've mentioned Pagett was portly) Pagett, went off in a swoon.


s: That was an end to the business; Pagett, the perjured, fled


s: With a practical, working knowledge of "Solar Myths" in his head.


s: How shall she know the worship we would do her?


s: The walls are high, and she is very far.


s: How shall the woman's message reach unto her


s: Free wind of March, against the lattice blowing,


s: Bear thou our thanks, lest she depart unknowing.


s: Go forth across the fields we may not roam in,


s: Go forth beyond the trees that rim the city,


s: To whatsoe'er fair place she hath her home in,


s: Who dowered us with wealth of love and pity.


s: Out of our shadow pass, and seek her singing--


s: "I have no gifts but Love alone for bringing."


s: Say that we be a feeble folk who greet her,


s: But old in grief, and very wise in tears;


s: Say that we, being desolate, entreat her


s: For we have seen the light, and it were grievous


s: To dim that dawning if our lady leave us.


s: By life that ebbed with none to stanch the failing


s: By Love's sad harvest garnered in the spring,


s: O'er young buds dead before their blossoming;


s: By all the grey owl watched, the pale moon viewed,


s: In past grim years, declare our gratitude!


s: By hands uplifted to the Gods that heard not,


s: By fits that found no favor in their sight,


s: By faces bent above the babe that stirred not,


s: By nameless horrors of the stifling night;


s: By ills foredone, by peace her toils discover,


s: Bid Earth be good beneath and Heaven above her!


s: If she have sent her servants in our pain


s: If she have fought with Death and dulled his sword;


s: And to the breast the waking lips restored,


s: Is it a little thing that she has wrought?


s: Then Life and Death and Motherhood be nought.


s: Go forth, O wind, our message on thy wings,


s: And they shall hear thee pass and bid thee speed,


s: In reed-roofed hut, or white-walled home of kings,


s: Who have been helpen by her in their need.


s: All spring shall give thee fragrance, and the wheat


s: Shall be a tasselled floorcloth to thy feet.


s: Haste, for our hearts are with thee, take no rest!


s: Proclaim the blessing, manifold, confessed.


s: Of those in darkness by her hand set free.


s: And whisper: "Lady, lo, they know and love!"


s: Tonight what names your programme fill--


s: "What have we ever done to bear this grudge?"


s: For docket, duftar, and for office drudge,


s: That you usurp our smoothest dancing floor?


s: Must babus do their work on polished teak?


s: Are ball-rooms fittest for the ink you spill?


s: Was there no other cheaper house to seek?


s: You might have left them all at Strawberry Hill.


s: We never harmed you! Innocent our guise,


s: Dainty our shining feet, our voices low;


s: Tonight, the moon that watched our lightsome wiles--


s: That beamed upon us through the deodars--


s: And desecrating desks disgust the stars.


s: Nay! by the glamour of foredone delights--


s: By all things merry, musical, and meet--


s: By wine that sparkled, and by sparkling eyes--


s: By wailing waltz--by reckless galop's strain--


s: Give us our ravished ball-room back again!


s: The ghosts of waltzes shall perplex your brain,


s: Your 'wildered clerks that they indite in vain;


s: And when you count your poor Provincial millions,


s: The only figures that your pen shall frame


s: Shall be the figures of dear, dear cotillions


s: Danced out in tumult long before you came.


s: Yea! "See Saw" shall upset your estimates,


s: "Dream Faces" shall your heavy heads bemuse,


s: Because your hand, unheeding, desecrates


s: Our temple; fit for higher, worthier use.


s: Shall plague you with unbidden sentiment--


s: Babbling of kisses, laughter, love, and tears.


s: So shall you mazed amid old memories stand,


s: So shall you toil, and shall accomplish nought,


s: Shall blare away the staid official thought.


s: Wherefore--and ere this awful curse he spoken,


s: Cast out your swarthy sacrilegious train,


s: And give--ere dancing cease and hearts be broken--


s: Give us our ravished ball-room back again!


s: That night, when through the mooring-chains


s: They told their tales of wreck and wrong,


s: They backed their toughest statements with


s: Now Anne of Austria shared their drinks,


s: Since Life is strife, and strife means knife,


s: As I left the Halls at Lumley, rose the vision of a comely


s: That was all--the rest was settled by the clinking tonga-bar.


s: Yea, my life and hers were coupled by the tonga coupling-bar.


s: For my misty meditation, at the second changin'-station,


s: Suffered sudden dislocation, fled before the tuneless jar


s: Of a Wagner obbligato, scherzo, doublehand staccato,


s: Played on either pony's saddle by the clacking tonga-bar--


s: Played with human speech, I fancied, by the jigging, jolting bar.


s: Heart of man--oh, heart of putty! Had I gone by Kakahutti,


s: On the old Hill-road and rutty, I had 'scaped that fatal car.


s: "You must call on Her tomorrow!"--post-horn gallop by the bar.


s: Yet a further stage my goal on--we were whirling down to Solon,


s: "'Been accepted or rejected!" banged and clanged the tonga-bar.


s: Then a notion wild and daring, 'spite the income tax's paring,


s: And a hasty thought of sharing--less than many incomes are,


s: "Simple Rule of Two will prove it," lilted back the tonga-bar.


s: It was under Khyraghaut I mused. "Suppose the maid be haughty--


s: (There are lovers rich--and rotty)--wait some wealthy Avatar?


s: Answer monitor untiring, 'twixt the ponies twain perspiring!"


s: "Can I tell you ere you ask Her?" pounded slow the tonga-bar.


s: Last, the Tara Devi turning showed the lights of Simla burning,


s: Lit my little lazy yearning to a fiercer flame by far.


s: As below the Mall we jingled, through my very heart it tingled--


s: Did the iterated order of the threshing tonga-bar--


s: If It be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai,


s: Does not the Young Man try Its temper and pace ere he buy?


s: If She be pleasant to look on, what does the Young Man say?


s: "Lo! She is pleasant to look on, give Her to me today!"


s: Yea, though a Kafir die, to him is remitted Jehannum


s: Blister we not for bursati? So when the heart is vexed,


s: Who are the rulers of Ind--to whom shall we bow the knee?


s: Make your peace with the women, and men will make you L. G.


s: Does the woodpecker flit round the young ferash?


s: Is she under thirty, the woman who holds a boy in her thrall?


s: If She grow suddenly gracious--reflect. Is it all for thee?


s: Seek not for favor of women. So shall you find it indeed.


s: Does not the boar break cover just when you're lighting a weed?


s: With a "weed" among men or horses verily this is the best,


s: As the thriftless gold of the babul, so is the gold that we spend


s: The ways of man with a maid be strange, yet simple and tame


s: In public Her face is averted, with anger. She nameth thy name.


s: If She have spoken a word, remember thy lips are sealed,


s: If She have written a letter, delay not an instant, but burn it.


s: My Son, if a maiden deny thee and scufflingly bid thee give o'er,


s: Though Allah and Earth pardon Sin, remaineth forever Remorse.


s: That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib


s: And the "drip-drip-drip" from the baskets


s: Glare down, old Hecate, through the dust,


s: In the name of the Empress of India, make way,


s: O Lords of the Jungle, wherever you roam.


s: The woods are astir at the close of the day--


s: We exiles are waiting for letters from Home.


s: Let the robber retreat--let the tiger turn tail--


s: With a jingle of bells as the dusk gathers in,


s: He turns to the foot-path that heads up the hill--


s: The bags on his back and a cloth round his chin,


s: And, tucked in his waist-belt, the Post Office bill:


s: "Despatched on this date, as received by the rail,


s: Per runner, two bags of the Overland Mail."


s: Is the torrent in spate? He must ford it or swim.


s: Has the rain wrecked the road? He must climb by the cliff.


s: Does the tempest cry "Halt"? What are tempests to him?


s: The Service admits not a "but" or and "if."


s: While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail,


s: From aloe to rose-oak, from rose-oak to fir,


s: From level to upland, from upland to crest,


s: From rice-field to rock-ridge, from rock-ridge to spur,


s: Fly the soft sandalled feet, strains the brawny brown chest.


s: From rail to ravine--to the peak from the vale--


s: Up, up through the night goes the Overland Mail.


s: There's a speck on the hillside, a dot on the road--


s: A jingle of bells on the foot-path below--


s: There's a scuffle above in the monkey's abode--


s: The world is awake, and the clouds are aglow.


s: For the great Sun himself must attend to the hail:


s: "In the name of the Empress the Overland Mail!"


s: They have heard, as the dull Earth hears


s: Then, far and near, as the twilight drew,


s: Great serpents, blazing, of red and blue,


s: And the Ploughman listened and bowed his head:


s: "Today and tomorrow God's will," he said,


s: "Mogul Mahratta, and Mlech from the North,


s: God raiseth them up and driveth them forth


s: As the dust of the ploughshare flies in the breeze;


s: But the wheat and the cattle are all my care,


s: How can he drink tea with the Executioner?"


s: And I meet him oft o' mornings on the Course;


s: As I canter past the Undertaker's Horse.


s: Trot, professional and placid, he affects;


s: "Mend your pace, my friend, I'm coming. Who's the next?"


s: Of pith and might and muscle--at your heels,


s: In a lacquered box and jetty upon wheels.


s: Smith, the pride of all his friends and half the Force?


s: Bring them back to me, O Undertaker's Horse!


s: And that businesslike black crimping of your tail,


s: What wonder when I meet you I turn pale?


s: Quit the sunlight, cut the rhyming, drop the glass--


s: Us with marigolds in lieu of English grass.


s: See Carnifex (gone lame) become a corse--


s: I shall chuckle then, O Undertaker's Horse!


s: Trot that hammers out the unrelenting text,


s: "'Sure to catch you sooner or later. Who's the next?"


s: An' syne he trumped his partner's trick,


s: "God save the lad! Whence comes the licht


s: "There's a third o' hair on your dress-coat breast,


s: "Oh! lang-haired Skyes are lovin' beasts,


s: "There's a smirch o' pouther on your breast,


s: "Last nicht ye told that tale yoursel'--


s: An' it fell when sirris-shaws were sere,


s: That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass."


s: The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,


s: Strike hard who cares--shoot straight who can--


s: With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,


s: "You must choose between me and your cigar."


s: Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,


s: For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.


s: We quarrelled about Havanas--we fought o'er a good cheroot,


s: And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.


s: Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a space;


s: In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.


s: Maggie is pretty to look at--Maggie's a loving lass,


s: There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;


s: But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away--


s: Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown--


s: Maggie, my wife at fifty--grey and dour and old--


s: With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!


s: The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket--


s: Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a while.


s: Here is a mild Manila--there is a wifely smile.


s: Which is the better portion--bondage bought with a ring,


s: Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?


s: Counsellors cunning and silent--comforters true and tried,


s: And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?


s: Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,


s: Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,


s: This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,


s: With only a Suttee's passion--to do their duty and burn.


s: This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,


s: Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.


s: The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,


s: When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.


s: For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between


s: The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.


s: And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,


s: But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;


s: And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,


s: Open the old cigar-box--let me consider anew--


s: Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?


s: A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;


s: And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.


s: Light me another Cuba--I hold to my first-sworn vows.


s: If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!


s: Where the sober-colored cultivator smiles


s: Where the cholera, the cyclone, and the crow


s: Where the merchant deals in indigo and tea,


s: Stands a City--Charnock chose it--packed away


s: By the Sewage rendered fetid, by the sewer


s: By the Sunderbunds unwholesome, by the swamp


s: And the City and the Viceroy, as we see,


s: Once, two hundred years ago, the trader came


s: Where his timid foot first halted, there he stayed,


s: Grew to Empire, and he sent his armies forth


s: Till the country from Peshawur to Ceylon


s: Thus the midday halt of Charnock--more's the pity!


s: As the fungus sprouts chaotic from its bed,


s: Chance-directed, chance-erected, laid and built


s: Palace, byre, hovel--poverty and pride--


s: And, above the packed and pestilential town,


s: Fled, with each returning spring-tide from its ills


s: From the clammy fogs of morning, from the blaze


s: From the sickness of the noontide, from the heat,


s: But the Merchant risked the perils of the Plain


s: Now the resting-place of Charnock, 'neath the palms,


s: "Because for certain months, we boil and stew,


s: Cast the Viceroy and his Council, to perspire


s: That an amateur Saint Lawrence cannot fry:


s: That the Merchant risks the perils of the Plain


s: Nor can Rulers rule a house that men grow rich in,


s: And mature--consistent soul--his plan for stealing


s: Let the Merchant seek, who makes his silver pile,


s: Let the City Charnock pitched on--evil day!


s: Though the argosies of Asia at Her doors


s: Though "out-station orders punctually obeyed"


s: Still, for rule, administration, and the rest,


s: Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall


s: Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment


s: But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,


s: tho' they come from the ends of the earth!


s: Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border-side,


s: And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride:


s: Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar:


s: "At dusk he harries the Abazai--at dawn he is into Bonair,


s: But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,


s: So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,


s: The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw rough dun was he,


s: The Colonel's son to the Fort has won, they bid him stay to eat--


s: He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he can fly,


s: It's up and over the Tongue of Jagai, as blown dustdevils go,


s: The dun he leaned against the bit and slugged his head above,


s: The dun he fell at a water-course--in a woful heap fell he,


s: "If I had raised my bridle-hand, as I have held it low,


s: The little jackals that flee so fast were feasting all in a row:


s: If I had bowed my head on my breast, as I have held it high,


s: "If there should follow a thousand swords to carry my bones away,


s: Kamal has gripped him by the hand and set him upon his feet.


s: "May I eat dirt if thou hast hurt of me in deed or breath;


s: So she shall go with a lifter's dower, my turquoise-studded rein,


s: "Ye have taken the one from a foe," said he;


s: "Thy father has sent his son to me, I'll send my son to him!"


s: Till Death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and board and bed,


s: Thy life is his--thy fate it is to guard him with thy head.


s: The Colonel's son he rides the mare and Kamal's boy the dun,


s: "Ha' done! ha' done!" said the Colonel's son.


s: Last night ye had struck at a Border thief--


s: But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,


s: tho' they come from the ends of the earth!


s: And there was sobbing behind the screen,


s: He passed at dawn--the death-fire leaped


s: "See, now, that we die as our mothers died


s: Had reached the turn to the open street,


s: The bars shot down, the guard-drum beat--


s: A face looked down in the gathering day,


s: When the house is rotten, the rats must fly,


s: "For I ruled the King as ne'er did Queen,--


s: In scourge and torture!"  She leaped below,


s: They knew that the King had spent his soul


s: That he prayed to a flat-nosed Lucknow god,


s: And kissed the ground where her feet had trod,


s: Where the gray apes swing, and the peacocks preen


s: And the wild boar couch in the house of the Queen


s: And called on the King--but the great King slept,


s: Small thought had he to mark the strife--


s: When thrice she leaped from the leaping flame,


s: And thrice she beat her breast for shame,


s: Who had stood by the King in sport and fray,


s: Will the white ash rise from the blistered brand?


s: Then she:  "By the faith of my tarnished soul,


s: With base-born blood of a trade abhorred,"--


s: He drew and struck:  the straight blade drank


s: "I had looked for the Queen to face the flame,


s: But the harlot dies for the Rajpoot dame--


s: That whistled and fluttered from head to heel,


s: Leaped up anew, for they found their meal


s: He has taken toll of the North and the South--


s: Before the old Peshawur Gate, where Kurd and Kaffir meet,


s: The Governor of Kabul dealt the Justice of the Street,


s: And that was strait as running noose and swift as plunging knife,


s: There was a hound of Hindustan had struck a Euzufzai,


s: Wherefore they spat upon his face and led him out to die.


s: And he was honoured of the King--the which is salt to Death;


s: And blood of old Durani Lords ran fire in his veins;


s: And 'twas to tame an Afghan pride nor Hell nor Heaven could bind,


s: The North and the South shall open their mouth


s: When the big guns speak to the Khyber peak,


s: Ye have heard the song--How long? How long?


s: And grimly said the Afghan King:  "I rule the Afghan race.


s: My path is mine--see thou to thine--tonight upon thy bed


s: Think who there be in Kabul now that clamour for thy head."


s: That night when all the gates were shut to City and to throne,


s: Within a little garden-house the King lay down alone.


s: Before the sinking of the moon, which is the Night of Night,


s: Yar Khan came softly to the King to make his honour white.


s: The children of the town had mocked beneath his horse's hoofs,


s: But as he groped against the wall, two hands upon him fell,


s: And that thou bearest in thy hand is all too sharp to write.


s: For I am merciful to all, and most of all to thee.


s: "My butcher of the shambles, rest--no knife hast thou for me!"


s: But the Ghilzai knows, ere the melting snows,


s: When the red-coats crawl to the sungar wall,


s: They stoned him in the rubbish-field when dawn was in the sky,


s: According to the written word, "See that he do not die."


s: One watched beside the dreary mound that veiled the battered


s: And him the King with laughter called the Herald of the King.


s: It was upon the second night, the night of Ramazan,


s: The watcher leaning earthward heard the message of Yar Khan.


s: "Bid him endure until the day," a lagging answer came;


s: "The night is short, and he can pray and learn to bless my name."


s: Before the dawn three times he spoke, and on the day once more:


s: "Creature of God, deliver me, and bless the King therefor!"


s: They shot him at the morning prayer, to ease him of his pain,


s: Which thing the singers made a song for all the world to sing,


s: So that the Outer Seas may know the mercy of the King.


s: He has opened his mouth to the North and the South,


s: Ye have heard the song--How long? How long?


s: When spring-time flushes the desert grass,


s: Our kafilas wind through the Khyber Pass.


s: Light are the purses but heavy the bales,


s: As the snowbound trade of the North comes down


s: In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill,


s: A kafila camped at the foot of the hill.


s: Then blue smoke-haze of the cooking rose,


s: Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled;


s: And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food;


s: And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Jumrood;


s: And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk


s: A savour of camels and carpets and musk,


s: To tell us the trade of the Khyber woke.


s: The lid of the flesh-pot chattered high,


s: The knives were whetted and--then came I


s: Patching his bridles and counting his gear,


s: "Better is speech when the belly is fed."


s: So we plunged the hand to the mid-wrist deep


s: In a cinnamon stew of the fat-tailed sheep,


s: We cleansed our beards of the mutton-grease,


s: We lay on the mats and were filled with peace,


s: And the talk slid north, and the talk slid south,


s: With the sliding puffs from the hookah-mouth.


s: Four things greater than all things are,--


s: We spake of them all, but the last the most,


s: Of a shifty promise, an unsheathed sword


s: And a gray-coat guard on the Helmund ford.


s: In the fashion of one who is weaving lies.


s: When the night is gathering all is gray.


s: But we look that the gloom of the night shall die


s: In the morning flush of a blood-red sky.


s: But no man knoweth the mind of the King.


s: And the colt bred close to the vice of each,


s: For he carried the curse of an unstanched speech.


s: To the line where the gray-coat squadrons are.


s: Saw naught, said naught, and--did not die!


s: He harked to rumour, and snatched at a breath


s: Of 'this one knoweth' and 'that one saith',--


s: Of a gray-coat coming, and sack of the South.


s: With each new spring and the winter grass.


s: The King held talk with his Chief in War.


s: And what he had heard of the coming spoke.


s: "Then Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief, smiled,


s: But those who would laugh restrained their breath,


s: When the face of the King showed dark as death.


s: "And he said to the boy: 'They shall praise thy zeal


s: So long as the red spurt follows the steel.


s: Great is thy prudence--await them, thou.


s: Watch from the tree.  Thou art young and strong,


s: A guard was set that he might not flee--


s: "The peach-bloom fell in showers of snow,


s: When he shook at his death as he looked below.


s: By the power of God, who alone is great,


s: Till the seventh day he fought with his fate.


s: He mowed in the branches as ape and bear,


s: And last as a sloth, ere his body failed,


s: And he hung as a bat in the forks, and wailed,


s: And he fell, and was caught on the points and died.


s: But no man knoweth the mind of the King.


s: When the night is gathering all is gray.


s: "And since we know not how War may prove,


s: Heart of my heart, let us talk of Love!"


s: His sword and his Snider were bossed with gold,


s: And the Peacock Banner his henchmen bore


s: Was stiff with bullion, but stiffer with gore.


s: He shot at the strong and he slashed at the weak


s: From the Salween scrub to the Chindwin teak:


s: "The patriot fights for his countryside!"


s: But little they cared for the Native Press,


s: Who tramped through the jungle and camped in the byre,


s: Who died in the swamp and were tombed in the mire,


s: Who gave up their lives, at the Queen's Command,


s: For the Pride of their Race and the Peace of the Land.


s: Now, first of the foemen of Boh Da Thone


s: There were lads from Galway and Louth and Meath


s: Who went to their death with a joke in their teeth,


s: And worshipped with fluency, fervour, and zeal


s: The mud on the boot-heels of "Crook" O'Neil.


s: And ever their quarry would vanish away,


s: Till the sun-dried boys of the Black Tyrone


s: Took a brotherly interest in Boh Da Thone:


s: And, sooth, if pursuit in possession ends,


s: The Boh and his trackers were best of friends.


s: A rush through the mist--a scattering fight--


s: A volley from cover--a corpse in the clearing--


s: The glimpse of a loin-cloth and heavy jade earring--


s: The flare of a village--the tally of slain--


s: And. . .the Boh was abroad "on the raid" again!


s: They cursed their luck, as the Irish will,


s: They gave him credit for cunning and skill,


s: They buried their dead, they bolted their beef,


s: And started anew on the track of the thief


s: Till, in place of the "Kalends of Greece", men said,


s: "When Crook and his darlings come back with the head."


s: They had hunted the Boh from the hills to the plain--


s: He doubled and broke for the hills again:


s: They had crippled his power for rapine and raid,


s: They had routed him out of his pet stockade,


s: And at last, they came, when the Day Star tired,


s: A black cross blistered the Morning-gold,


s: And the body upon it was stark and cold.


s: The high grass bowed her plumes to the blast.


s: And out of the grass, on a sudden, broke


s: Was blessed with a slug in the ulnar-bone--


s: (Now a slug that is hammered from telegraph-wire


s: Is a thorn in the flesh and a rankling fire.)


s: The shot-wound festered--as shot-wounds may


s: The left arm throbbed, and the Captain swore,


s: "I'd like to be after the Boh once more!"


s: "I'd give a hundred to look at his head!"


s: The Hospital punkahs creaked and whirred,


s: He thought of the cane-brake, green and dank,


s: That girdled his home by the Dacca tank.


s: He thought of his wife and his High School son,


s: He thought--but abandoned the thought--of a gun.


s: And swindled the cartmen of half their pay.


s: And the months went on, as the worst must do,


s: But the Captain had quitted the long-drawn strife,


s: With hair like the sunshine and heart of gold,


s: And little she knew the arms that embraced


s: Had cloven a man from the brow to the waist:


s: And little she knew that the loving lips


s: And the eye that lit at her lightest breath


s: Had glared unawed in the Gates of Death.


s: As a general rule, from an innocent Bride.)


s: And little the Captain thought of the past,


s: But slow, in the sludge of the Kathun road,


s: The Government Bullock Train toted its load.


s: Speckless and spotless and shining with ghee,


s: Then the lead-cart stuck, though the coolies slaved,


s: And the cartmen flogged and the escort raved;


s: And out of the jungle, with yells and squeals,


s: Pranced Boh Da Thone, and his gang at his heels!


s: The Snider's snarl and the carbine's crack,


s: To the blade that twanged on the locking-ring,


s: And the brown flesh blued where the bay'net kissed,


s: As the steel shot back with a wrench and a twist,


s: And the great white bullocks with onyx eyes


s: The Peacock Banner staggered and swayed.


s: And girded his ponderous loins for flight,


s: But Fate had ordained that the Boh should start


s: On a lone-hand raid of the rearmost cart,


s: And out of that cart, with a bellow of woe,


s: The Babu fell--flat on the top of the Boh!


s: For years had Harendra served the State,


s: To the growth of his purse and the girth of his _pet_.


s: There were twenty stone, as the tally-man knows,


s: On the broad of the chest of this best of Bohs.


s: And twenty stone from a height discharged


s: Are bad for a Boh with a spleen enlarged.


s: Oh, short was the struggle--severe was the shock--


s: He dropped like a bullock--he lay like a block;


s: And the Babu above him, convulsed with fear,


s: Heard the labouring life-breath hissed out in his ear.


s: Turn now to Simoorie where, lapped in his ease,


s: The Captain is petting the Bride on his knees,


s: Where the whit of the bullet, the wounded man's scream


s: Are mixed as the mist of some devilish dream--


s: Forgotten, forgotten the sweat of the shambles


s: Where the hill-daisy blooms and the gray monkey gambols,


s: From the sword-belt set free and released from the steel,


s: The Peace of the Lord is with Captain O'Neil.


s: Up the hill to Simoorie--most patient of drudges--


s: The bags on his shoulder, the mail-runner trudges.


s: "For Captain O'Neil, Sahib.  One hundred and ten


s: (Their breakfast was stopped while the screw-jack and hammer


s: Tore waxcloth, split teak-wood, and chipped out the dammer;)


s: Open-eyed, open-mouthed, on the napery's snow,


s: With a crash and a thud, rolled--the Head of the Boh!


s: And gummed to the scalp was a letter which ran:--


s: "Dear Sir,--I have honour to send, as you said,


s: For final approval (see under) Boh's Head;


s: "Was took by myself in most bloody affair.


s: By High Education brought pressure to bear.


s: To mail V.P.P. (rupees hundred)  Please add


s: "Whatever Your Honour can pass.  Price of Blood


s: Much cheap at one hundred, and children want food;


s: "So trusting Your Honour will somewhat retain


s: True love and affection for Govt. Bullock Train,


s: As the rabbit is drawn to the rattlesnake's power,


s: As the smoker's eye fills at the opium hour,


s: As a horse reaches up to the manger above,


s: As the waiting ear yearns for the whisper of love,


s: From the arms of the Bride, iron-visaged and slow,


s: The Captain bent down to the Head of the Boh.


s: And e'en as he looked on the Thing where It lay


s: 'Twixt the winking new spoons and the napkins' array,


s: The freed mind fled back to the long-ago days--


s: The hand-to-hand scuffle--the smoke and the blaze--


s: The forced march at night and the quick rush at dawn--


s: The banjo at twilight, the burial ere morn--


s: The stench of the marshes--the raw, piercing smell


s: When the overhand stabbing-cut silenced the yell--


s: The oaths of his Irish that surged when they stood


s: Where the black crosses hung o'er the Kuttamow flood.


s: As a derelict ship drifts away with the tide


s: The Captain went out on the Past from his Bride,


s: Back, back, through the springs to the chill of the year,


s: When he hunted the Boh from Maloon to Tsaleer.


s: As the shape of a corpse dimmers up through deep water,


s: In his eye lit the passionless passion of slaughter,


s: And men who had fought with O'Neil for the life


s: Had gazed on his face with less dread than his wife.


s: For she who had held him so long could not hold him--


s: Though a four-month Eternity should have controlled him--


s: But watched the twin Terror--the head turned to head--


s: The scowling, scarred Black, and the flushed savage Red--


s: The spirit that changed from her knowing and flew to


s: Some grim hidden Past she had never a clue to.


s: But It knew as It grinned, for he touched it unfearing,


s: And muttered aloud, "So you kept that jade earring!"


s: Then nodded, and kindly, as friend nods to friend,


s: "Old man, you fought well, but you lost in the end."


s: The visions departed, and Shame followed Passion:--


s: "He took what I said in this horrible fashion,


s: "I'll write to Harendra!"  With language unsainted


s: The Captain came back to the Bride. . .who had fainted.


s: And this is a fiction?  No.  Go to Simoorie


s: And look at their baby, a twelve-month old Houri,


s: A pert little, Irish-eyed Kathleen Mavournin--


s: She's always about on the Mall of a mornin'--


s: And you'll see, if her right shoulder-strap is displaced,


s: This:  Gules upon argent, a Boh's Head, erased!


s: The black shall mourn for hoof and hide,


s: For the wrong you have done to a chief of men,


s: That you cram my throat with the foul pig's flesh,


s: Their anchors down, by London town, the Three Great Captains lay;


s: And one was Lord of the Wessex coast and all the lands thereby,


s: And one was Master of the Thames from Limehouse to Blackwall,


s: And he was Captain of the Fleet--the bravest of them all.


s: When there came a certain trading-brig with news of a privateer.


s: I had no fear but the seas were clear as far as a sail might fare


s: "He would not fly the Rovers' flag--the bloody or the black,


s: But now he floated the Gridiron and now he flaunted the Jack.


s: "He has taken my little parrakeets that nest beneath the Line,


s: "Had I had guns (as I had goods) to work my Christian harm,


s: "There is never a Law on the Cocos Keys to hold a white man in,


s: By two and three the flags blew free to lash the laughing air:--


s: Flying his pluck at our mizzen-truck for weft of Admiralty,


s: They dipped their noses deep in the sea,


s: They racked their stays and stanchions free


s: Till the bow-gun drooped like a lily tired


s: 'Twere well to rest for an hour or twain,


s: And the great stern-gun shot fair and true,


s: With the heave of the ship, to the stainless blue,


s: You can hear the hiss of the helpless ram,


s: As the White Whale faces the Thresher's ire


s: To bide in the heart of an eight-day clock


s: Lay bare as the paunch of the purser's sow,


s: "Captain, they hack us through and through;


s: We have emptied the bunkers in open sea,


s: Their shrapnel bursts where our coal should be."


s: And the blood and the bubbling steam ran forth,


s: And he answered, "Grapple her stern and bow.


s: They have asked for the steel.  They shall have it now;


s: As they rolled in the waist and heard the fight


s: They fought as they fought in Nelson's fleet;


s: They were stripped to the waist, they were bare to the feet,


s: To the cod and the corpse-fed conger-eel,


s: Seven men from all the world, back to Docks again,


s: Rolling down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:


s: Give the girls another drink 'fore we sign away--


s: We that took the Bolivar out across the Bay!


s: We put out from Sunderland loaded down with rails;


s: We put back to Sunderland 'cause our cargo shifted;


s: We put out from Sunderland--met the winter gales--


s: Seven days and seven nights to the Start we drifted.


s: Racketing her rivets loose, smoke-stack white as snow,


s: All the coals adrift adeck, half the rails below,


s: Leaking like a lobster-pot, steering like a dray--


s: Out we took the Bolivar, out across the Bay!


s: One by one the Lights came up, winked and let us by;


s: Mile by mile we waddled on, coal and fo'c'sle short;


s: Met a blow that laid us down, heard a bulkhead fly;


s: Left the Wolf behind us with a two-foot list to port.


s: Trailing like a wounded duck, working out her soul;


s: Clanging like a smithy-shop after every roll;


s: Just a funnel and a mast lurching through the spray--


s: So we threshed the Bolivar out across the Bay!


s: 'Felt her hog and felt her sag, betted when she'd break;


s: Wondered every time she raced if she'd stand the shock;


s: Heard the seas like drunken men pounding at her strake;


s: Hoped the Lord 'ud keep his thumb on the plummer-block.


s: Banged against the iron decks, bilges choked with coal;


s: Flayed and frozen foot and hand, sick of heart and soul;


s: Last we prayed she'd buck herself into judgment Day--


s: Hi! we cursed the Bolivar--knocking round the Bay!


s: O her nose flung up to sky, groaning to be still--


s: Up and down and back we went, never time for breath;


s: Then the money paid at Lloyd's caught her by the heel,


s: And the stars ran round and round dancin' at our death.


s: Aching for an hour's sleep, dozing off between;


s: 'Heard the rotten rivets draw when she took it green;


s: 'Watched the compass chase its tail like a cat at play--


s: That was on the Bolivar, south across the Bay.


s: Once we saw between the squalls, lyin' head to swell--


s: Mad with work and weariness, wishin' they was we--


s: Some damned Liner's lights go by like a long hotel;


s: Cheered her from the Bolivar--swampin' in the sea.


s: Then a grayback cleared us out, then the skipper laughed;


s: "Boys, the wheel has gone to Hell--rig the winches aft!


s: Yoke the kicking rudder-head--get her under way!"


s: So we steered her, pulley-haul, out across the Bay!


s: Just a pack o' rotten plates puttied up with tar,


s: In we came, an' time enough, 'cross Bilbao Bar.


s: Overloaded, undermanned, meant to founder, we


s: Euchred God Almighty's storm, bluffed the Eternal Sea!


s: Seven men from all the world, back to town again,


s: Rollin' down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:


s: Seven men from out of Hell.  Ain't the owners gay,


s: 'Cause we took the "Bolivar" safe across the Bay?


s: Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack,


s: remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately


s: when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts,


s: and seemed to see significance in the incident.--DAILY PAPERS.


s: The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag,


s: Must we borrow a clout from the Boer--to plaster anew with dirt?


s: An Irish liar's bandage, or an English coward's shirt?


s: We may not speak of England; her Flag's to sell or share.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Winds of the World, declare!


s: The North Wind blew:--"From Bergen my steel-shod vanguards go;


s: I chase your lazy whalers home from the Disko floe;


s: By the great North Lights above me I work the will of God,


s: "I barred my gates with iron, I shuttered my doors with flame,


s: Because to force my ramparts your nutshell navies came;


s: "The lean white bear hath seen it in the long, long Arctic night,


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my bergs to dare,


s: Ye have but my drifts to conquer.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: "Strayed amid lonely islets, mazed amid outer keys,


s: I waked the palms to laughter--I tossed the scud in the breeze--


s: Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone,


s: But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.


s: "My basking sunfish know it, and wheeling albatross,


s: Where the lone wave fills with fire beneath the Southern Cross.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my reefs to dare,


s: Ye have but my seas to furrow.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: "The reeling junks behind me and the racing seas before,


s: I raped your richest roadstead--I plundered Singapore!


s: I set my hand on the Hoogli; as a hooded snake she rose,


s: "Never the lotus closes, never the wild-fowl wake,


s: Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.


s: "The desert-dust hath dimmed it, the flying wild-ass knows,


s: The scared white leopard winds it across the taintless snows.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my sun to dare,


s: Ye have but my sands to travel.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: The West Wind called:--"In squadrons the thoughtless galleons fly


s: They make my might their porter, they make my house their path,


s: "I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole,


s: They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship-bells toll,


s: "But whether in calm or wrack-wreath, whether by dark or day,


s: I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,


s: First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky,


s: Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.


s: What is the Flag of England?  Ye have but my breath to dare,


s: Ye have but my waves to conquer.  Go forth, for it is there!"


s: Help for a patriot distressed, a spotless spirit hurt,


s: Help for an honorable clan sore trampled in the dirt!


s: From Queenstown Bay to Donegal, O listen to my song,


s: The honorable gentlemen have suffered grievous wrong.


s: Their noble names were mentioned--O the burning black disgrace!--


s: Cleared in the face of all mankind beneath the winking skies,


s: Like phoenixes from Phoenix Park (and what lay there) they rise!


s: Go shout it to the emerald seas-give word to Erin now,


s: Her honorable gentlemen are cleared--and this is how:


s: They only paid the Moonlighter his cattle-hocking price,


s: They only helped the murderer with council's best advice,


s: But--sure it keeps their honor white--the learned Court believes


s: They never gave a piece of plate to murderers and thieves.


s: They ever told the ramping crowd to card a woman's hide,


s: By God, the boys that did the work were braver men than they!


s: They knew whom they were talking at, if they were Irish too,


s: The gentlemen that lied in Court, they knew and well they knew.


s: They only took the Judas-gold from Fenians out of jail,


s: They only fawned for dollars on the blood-dyed Clan-na-Gael.


s: "Cleared," honorable gentlemen.  Be thankful it's no more:


s: The widow's curse is on your house, the dead are at your door.


s: On you the shame of open shame, on you from North to South


s: The band of every honest man flat-heeled across your mouth.


s: It's sticking to your fist today for all your sneer and scoff,


s: And by the Judge's well-weighed word you cannot wipe it off.


s: Hold up those hands of innocence--go, scare your sheep, together,


s: Tell them it's tar that glistens so, and daub them yours again!


s: "The charge is old"?--As old as Cain--as fresh as yesterday;


s: Old as the Ten Commandments, have ye talked those laws away?


s: If words are words, or death is death, or powder sends the ball,


s: You spoke the words that sped the shot--the curse be on you all.


s: "Our friends believe"? Of course they do--as sheltered women may;


s: The secret half a country keeps, the whisper in the lane,


s: The shriek that tells the shot went home behind the broken pane,


s: The dry blood crisping in the sun that scares the honest bees,


s: But you--you know--ay, ten times more; the secrets of the dead,


s: Black terror on the country-side by word and whisper bred,


s: My soul!  I'd sooner lie in jail for murder plain and straight,


s: Pure crime I'd done with my own hand for money, lust, or hate,


s: Than take a seat in Parliament by fellow-felons cheered,


s: The other on your dress-shirt front to show your heart is @dane,


s: If print is print or words are words, the learned Court perpends:


s: Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed,


s: The paper lay on the table, the strong heads bowed thereby,


s: And each one heard Her laughing as each one saw Her plain--


s: "There's a girl in Jersey City who works on the telephone;


s: We're going to hitch our horses and dig for a house of our own,


s: And over the German benches the bearded whisper ran:--


s: "Lager, der girls und der dollars, dey makes or dey breaks a man.


s: They passed one resolution:--"Your sub-committee believe


s: Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser held--


s: Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,


s: And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair--


s: A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,


s: "Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high


s: The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die--


s: --"For that ye strove in neighbour-love it shall be written fair,


s: For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."


s: Then Tomlinson looked up and down, and little gain was there,


s: And Tomlinson took up his tale and spoke of his good in life.


s: "This I have read in a book," he said, "and that was told to me,


s: There's little room between the stars in idleness to prate!


s: O none may reach by hired speech of neighbour, priest, and kin


s: The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and sun by sun they fell


s: "Wot ye the price of good pit-coal that I must pay?" said he,


s: "That ye rank yoursel' so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me?


s: I am all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that ye should give me scorn,


s: "Sit down, sit down upon the slag, and answer loud and high


s: The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die."


s: The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light;


s: And Tomlinson looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet


s: The frontlet of a tortured star milk-white in Hell-Mouth heat.


s: "O I had a love on earth," said he, "that kissed me to my fall,


s: And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all."


s: --"All that ye did in love forbid it shall be written fair,


s: But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not in Berkeley Square:


s: The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife,


s: And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his sin in life:--


s: Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, "Let me in--


s: There's sore decline in Adam's line if this be spawn of earth."


s: Empusa's crew, so naked-new they may not face the fire,


s: As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven's foolish hoard.


s: "Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I gave him place,


s: My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my face;


s: They'd call my house a common stews and me a careless host,


s: And for that sin should ye come in were I the lord alone.


s: But sinful pride has rule inside--and mightier than my own.


s: "I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should mock your pain,


s: But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again.


s: And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die:


s: And, Thomas, here's my best respects to you!


s: And treat you as a Christian ought to do;


s: "What are the bugles blowin' for?" said Files-on-Parade.


s: "To turn you out, to turn you out", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: "What makes you look so white, so white?" said Files-on-Parade.


s: "I'm dreadin' what I've got to watch", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away,


s: An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'.


s: "What makes the rear-rank breathe so 'ard?" said Files-on-Parade.


s: "It's bitter cold, it's bitter cold", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: "What makes that front-rank man fall down?" said Files-on-Parade.


s: "A touch o' sun, a touch o' sun", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: They are hangin' Danny Deever, they are marchin' of 'im round,


s: They 'ave 'alted Danny Deever by 'is coffin on the ground;


s: An' 'e'll swing in 'arf a minute for a sneakin' shootin' hound--


s: O they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'!


s: "'Is cot was right-'and cot to mine", said Files-on-Parade.


s: "'E's sleepin' out an' far tonight", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: "I've drunk 'is beer a score o' times", said Files-on-Parade.


s: "'E's drinkin' bitter beer alone", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: They are hangin' Danny Deever, you must mark 'im to 'is place,


s: For 'e shot a comrade sleepin'--you must look 'im in the face;


s: Nine 'undred of 'is county an' the regiment's disgrace,


s: While they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'.


s: "What's that so black agin' the sun?" said Files-on-Parade.


s: "It's Danny fightin' 'ard for life", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: "What's that that whimpers over'ead?" said Files-on-Parade.


s: "It's Danny's soul that's passin' now", the Colour-Sergeant said.


s: I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,


s: The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."


s: The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,


s: I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:


s: O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";


s: O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.


s: I went into a theatre as sober as could be,


s: They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;


s: They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,


s: Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep


s: Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;


s: An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit


s: Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.


s: The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,


s: O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.


s: We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,


s: But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;


s: An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,


s: Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;


s: While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",


s: You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:


s: We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.


s: Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face


s: The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.


s: An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;


s: An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool--you bet that Tommy sees!


s: We've fought with many men acrost the seas,


s: An' some of 'em was brave an' some was not:


s: But the Fuzzy was the finest o' the lot.


s: We never got a ha'porth's change of 'im:


s: 'E squatted in the scrub an' 'ocked our 'orses,


s: An' 'e played the cat an' banjo with our forces.


s: So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;


s: You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;


s: We gives you your certificate, an' if you want it signed


s: We'll come an' 'ave a romp with you whenever you're inclined.


s: We took our chanst among the Khyber 'ills,


s: Was pop to what the Fuzzy made us swaller;


s: We 'eld our bloomin' own, the papers say,


s: But man for man the Fuzzy knocked us 'oller.


s: Then 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, an' the missis and the kid;


s: Our orders was to break you, an' of course we went an' did.


s: We sloshed you with Martinis, an' it wasn't 'ardly fair;


s: But for all the odds agin' you, Fuzzy-Wuz, you broke the square.


s: When 'e's 'oppin' in an' out among the bush


s: With 'is coffin-'eaded shield an' shovel-spear,


s: But give an' take's the gospel, an' we'll call the bargain fair,


s: For if you 'ave lost more than us, you crumpled up the square!


s: 'E rushes at the smoke when we let drive,


s: An', before we know, 'e's 'ackin' at our 'ead;


s: 'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive,


s: An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.


s: 'E's a daisy, 'e's a ducky, 'e's a lamb!


s: 'E's the on'y thing that doesn't give a damn


s: So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;


s: You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;


s: An' 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, with your 'ayrick 'ead of 'air--


s: You big black boundin' beggar--for you broke a British square!


s: "We're fresh from off the ship an' 'e's maybe give the slip,


s: The dead they cannot rise, an' you'd better dry your eyes,


s: "I seed 'im serve the Queen in a suit o' rifle-green,


s: "I seed 'im runnin' by when the shots begun to fly--


s: "I couldn't see the fight, for the smoke it lay so white--


s: "'E's lying on the dead with a bullet through 'is 'ead,


s: "The pit we dug'll 'ide 'im an' the twenty men beside 'im--


s: Do you bring no sign from my true love?"


s: "I bring a lock of 'air that 'e allus used to wear,


s: O then I know it's true I've lost my true love!"


s: "An' I tell you truth again--when you've lost the feel o' pain


s: An' you'd best take 'im for your true love.


s: that handles the dear little pets--'Tss! 'Tss!


s: o' course you will know what to do--hoo! hoo!


s: You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees,


s: For we fancies ourselves at two thousand,


s: we guns that are built in two bits--'Tss! 'Tss!


s: If a man doesn't work, why, we drills 'im


s: If a beggar can't march, why, we kills 'im


s: D'you say that you sweat with the field-guns?


s: By God, you must lather with us--'Tss! 'Tss!


s: We're clear o' the pine an' the oak-scrub,


s: The rattle an' stamp o' the lead-mules--


s: the jinglety-jink o' the chains--'Tss! 'Tss!


s: There's a wheel on the Horns o' the Mornin',


s: to hold the old gun in 'er place--'Tss! 'Tss!


s: Stand easy, you long-eared old darlin's!


s: Out drag-ropes!  With shrapnel!  Hold fast--'Tss! 'Tss!


s: For you all love the screw-guns--the screw-guns they all love


s: You may hide in the caves, they'll be only your graves,


s: An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;


s: An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.


s: You limpin' lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!


s: An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind,


s: Was all the field-equipment 'e could find.


s: Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl,


s: You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been?


s: If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!"


s: An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear.


s: 'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear.


s: An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire",


s: When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire!


s: With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green.


s: With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been.


s: Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din.


s: An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water-green:


s: 'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen;


s: For Gawd's sake git the water, Gunga Din!"


s: An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.


s: "I 'ope you liked your drink", sez Gunga Din.


s: Where it's always double drill and no canteen;


s: An' I'll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!


s: You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!


s: But it's everlastin' waitin' on a everlastin' road


s: For the commissariat camel an' 'is commissariat load.


s: O the oont, 1 O the oont, O the commissariat oont!


s: With 'is silly neck a-bobbin' like a basket full o' snakes;


s: We packs 'im like an idol, an' you ought to 'ear 'im grunt,


s: An' when we gets 'im loaded up 'is blessed girth-rope breaks.


s: Wot makes the rear-guard swear so 'ard when night is drorin' in,


s: An' every native follower is shiverin' for 'is skin?


s: It ain't the chanst o' being rushed by Paythans from the 'ills,


s: It's the commissariat camel puttin' on 'is bloomin' frills!


s: O the oont, O the oont, O the hairy scary oont!


s: A-trippin' over tent-ropes when we've got the night alarm!


s: We socks 'im with a stretcher-pole an' 'eads 'im off in front,


s: An' when we've saved 'is bloomin' life 'e chaws our bloomin' arm.


s: The 'orse 'e knows above a bit, the bullock's but a fool,


s: The elephant's a gentleman, the battery-mule's a mule;


s: But the commissariat cam-u-el, when all is said an' done,


s: 'E's a devil an' a ostrich an' a orphan-child in one.


s: O the oont, O the oont, O the Gawd-forsaken oont!


s: The lumpy-'umpy 'ummin'-bird a-singin' where 'e lies,


s: 'E's blocked the whole division from the rear-guard to the front,


s: O the oont, O the oont, O the floppin', droppin' oont!


s: When 'is long legs give from under an' 'is meltin' eye is dim,


s: The tribes is up be'ind us, and the tribes is out in front--


s: It ain't no jam for Tommy, but it's kites an' crows for 'im.


s: So when the cruel march is done, an' when the roads is blind,


s: An' when we sees the camp in front an' 'ears the shots be'ind,


s: Ho! then we strips 'is saddle off, and all 'is woes is past:


s: 'E thinks on us that used 'im so, and gets revenge at last.


s: O the oont, O the oont, O the floatin', bloatin' oont!


s: The late lamented camel in the water-cut 'e lies;


s: We keeps a mile be'ind 'im an' we keeps a mile in front,


s: But 'e gets into the drinkin'-casks, and then o' course we dies.


s: If you've ever stole a pheasant-egg be'ind the keeper's back,


s: If you've ever snigged the washin' from the line,


s: If you've ever crammed a gander in your bloomin' 'aversack,


s: You will understand this little song o' mine.


s: But the service rules are 'ard, an' from such we are debarred,


s: For the same with English morals does not suit.


s: W'y, they call a man a robber if 'e stuffs 'is marchin' clobber


s: (Chorus)  Loo! loo!  Lulu! lulu!  Loo! loo!  Loot! loot! loot!


s: That's the thing to make the boys git up an' shoot!


s: Clap 'em forward with a Loo! loo! Lulu! Loot!


s: An' may thank your stars an' gaiters if you didn't feel 'is knife


s: Why lootin' should be entered as a crime;


s: So if my song you'll 'ear, I will learn you plain an' clear


s: 'Ow to pay yourself for fightin' overtime.


s: Now remember when you're 'acking round a gilded Burma god


s: That 'is eyes is very often precious stones;


s: 'E's like to show you everything 'e owns.


s: When 'e won't prodooce no more, pour some water on the floor


s: Where you 'ear it answer 'ollow to the boot


s: (Chorus)  Loo! loo!  Lulu!   Loot! loot! loot!


s: For a single man gets bottled on them twisty-wisty stairs,


s: An' a woman comes and clobs 'im from be'ind.


s: When you've turned 'em inside out, an' it seems beyond a doubt


s: As if there weren't enough to dust a flute


s: Before you sling your 'ook, at the 'ousetops take a look,


s: For it's underneath the tiles they 'ide the loot.


s: You can mostly square a Sergint an' a Quartermaster too,


s: I could never keep my pickin's, but I've learned you all I knew--


s: An' now I'll bid good-bye, for I'm gettin' rather dry,


s: So 'ere's good-luck to those that wears the Widow's clo'es,


s: An' the Devil send 'em all they want o' loot!


s: In the tunic an' the mess-tin an' the boot!


s: This 'appened in a battle to a batt'ry of the corps


s: Which is first among the women an' amazin' first in war;