THE BLAMELESS PRINCE
Only their eyes told what they could not say,
For still their lips spoke alien words that day.
She told a legend of an early king
Who knew the fairy of this wildwood glen,
And often sought her haunt, far off to fling
His grandeur, and be loved like common men.
He died long since, the lady said; but she,
Who could not die, how weary she must be!
They talked of the strange beauty of the spot,
The light that glinted through the ancient trees,
Their own young lives, the Prince's future lot;
Then jested with false laughs. Like tangled bees,
Each other and themselves they sweetly stung;
They sung fond songs, and mocked the words they sung.
At last he hung his picture by a chain
About her neck, and on it graved the date.
Her merry eyes grew soft with tender pain;
She heard him sigh, "Alas, by what rude fate
Our lives, like ships at sea, an instant meet,
Then part forever on their courses fleet!"
And in sheer pity of herself she dropped
Her lovely head; and, though with self she strove,
One hot tear fell. The shadow, which had stopped
On her life's dial, moved again, and Love
Went sobbing by, and only left his wraith;
For both were loyal to their given faith.
Farewells they breathed and self-reproaches found,
Half gliding with the current to the fall,
Yet struggling for the shore. Was she not bound?
Did not his plighted future, like a wall,
Jut 'cross the stream? They feared themselves, and rose,
And through the forest gained the mansion-close
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