They found-no gaud they were prying for, No ring, no rose, but-who would have guessed ?— A double Louis-d'or! XIX. Here was a case for the priest : he heard, XX. And lo, when they came to the coffin-lid, XXI. Hid there? Why? Could the girl be wont XXII. Truth is truth: too true it was. Gold! She hoarded and hugged it first, Longed for it, leaned o'er it, loved it -alasTill the humor grew to a head and burst, And she cried, at the final pass, XXIII. "Talk not of God, my heart is stone! Gold I lack; and, my all, my own, It shall hide in my hair. I scarce die loth If they let my hair alone!" XXIV. Louis-d'ors, some six times five, And duly double, every piece. Now, do you see? With the priest to shrive, XXV. With heaven's gold gates about to ope, With friends' praise, gold-like, lingering still, An instinct had bidden the girl's hand grope For gold, the true sort—“ Gold in heaven, if you will; But I keep earth's too, I hope.” XXVI. Enough! The priest took the grave's grim yield: As if thirty pieces lay revealed On the place to bury strangers in, The hideous Potter's Field. XXVII. But the priest bethought him: "Milk that's spilt' -You know the adage! Watch and pray! XXVIII. Why I deliver this horrible verse? As the text of a sermon, which now I preach. Evil or good may be better or worse In the human heart, but the mixture of each Is a marvel and a curse. XXIX. The candid incline to surmise of late That the Christian faith may be false, I find; For our Essays-and-Reviews' debate Begins to tell on the public mind, And Colenso's words have weight: XXX. I still, to suppose it true, for my part, See reasons and reasons; this, to begin: 'Tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart At the head of a lie-taught Original Sin, The Corruption of Man's Heart. THE STATUE AND THE BUST. THERE'S a palace in Florence, the world knows well, And a statue watches it from the square, And this story of both do our townsmen tell. Ages ago, a lady there, At the farthest window facing the East The bridesmaids' prattle around her ceased; They saw how the blush of the bride They felt by its beats her heart expand As one at each ear and both in a breath Whispered, 66 The Great Duke Ferdinand." That selfsame instant, underneath, Gay he rode, with a friend as Till he threw his head back-" Who is she?' --"A bride the Riccardi brings home to-day." Hair in heaps lay heavily Over a pale brow spirit-pure- Carved like the heart of the coal-black tree, Crisped like a war-steed's encolure-- And lo, a blade for a knight's emprise He looked at her, as a lover can. Now, love so ordered for both their sakes, In the pile which the mighty shadow makes. (For Via Larga is three-parts light, Because of a crime which may God requite! To Florence and God the wrong was done, The Duke (with the statue's face in the square) Turned, in the midst of his multitude, At the bright approach of the bridal pair. Face to face the lovers stood A single minute and no more, While the bridegroom bent as a man subdued Bowed till his bonnet brushed the floor-- In a minute can lovers exchange a word? That was the bridegroom. At day's brink Calmly he said that her lot was cast, The world meanwhile, its noise and stir, Since passing the door might lead to a feast, "Freely I choose too," said the bride Your window and its world suffice," Replied the tongue, while the heart replied- "If I spend the night with that devil twice, May his window serve as my loop of hell Whence a damned soul looks on paradise! "I fly to the Duke who loves me well, Sit by his side and laugh at sorrow Ere I count another ave-bell. 'Tis only the coat of a page to borrow, And tie my hair in a horseboy's trim, And I save my soul-but not to-morrow (She checked herself and her eye grew dim) 66 My father tarries to bless my state: I must keep it one day more for him. "Is one day more so long to wait? Moreover the Duke rides past, I know; We shall see each other, sure as fate.' Just so! She turned on her side and slept. That night the Duke said, “Dear or cheap And on the morrow, bold with love, And smiled," "Twas a very funeral, "What if we break from the Arno bowers, And try if Petraja, cool and green, Cure last night's fault with this morning's flowers?" The bridegroom, not a thought to be seen On his steady brow and quiet mouth, Said, "Too much favor for me so mean! 46 But, alas! my lady leaves the South, Each wind that comes from the Apennine Is a menace to her tender youth : "Nor a way exists, the wise opine, If she quits her palace twice this year, Quoth the Duke, A sage and a kindly fear. Be our feast to-night as usual here! And then to himself-" Which night shall bring Or I am the fool, and thou art the king! "Yet my passion must wait a night, nor cool-- "I need thee still and might miss perchance. |