Page:Bells And Pomegranates Second Series (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.123086).pdf/177

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Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.
 
Shrugged his hump-shoulder,
To tell the beholder,
For twenty such knaves he should laugh but the bolder,
And so with his sword-hilt gallantly jutting,
And dexter-hand on his haunch abutting,
Went the little man from Ausbruch, strutting!

SAUL.

Said Abner, "At last thou art come!
"Ere I tell, ere thou speak,—
"Kiss my cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it,
And did kiss his cheek:
And he, "Since the King, oh my friend,
"For thy countenance sent,
"Nor drunken nor eaten have we;
"Nor, until from his tent
"Thou return with the joyful assurance
"The king liveth yet,
"Shall our lip with the honey be brightened,
"—The water, be wet.

"For out of the black mid-tent's silence,
"A space of three days,
" No sound hath escaped to thy servants,
"Of prayer nor of praise,
"To betoken that Saul and the Spirit
" Have gone their dread ways.

"Yet now my heart leaps, O beloved!
"God's child, with his dew

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