Poems (May)/Scene from Dumas's "Stockholm, Fontainebleau, et Rome"

by Edith May

SCENE FROM THE "STOCKHOLM, FONTAINEBLEAU, ET ROME," OF ALEX. DUMAS.

Christina, Ex-Queen of Sweden.
Envoys.

christina.

        Good-morrow, gentlemen!
You seek me—I guess wherefore. Sweden's queen
How gladly I would be again, God knows
Whose hand withholds me from the throne. Yon sceptre,
So fair to look upon, must grace my tomb.
You come too late.

an envoy.

You come too late. Madame, for the Powers Supreme
It never is too late. God's self, when kings,
Empires, and nations in the balance tremble,
Looks twice before he strikes; and sometimes, when
The death-hour's ready, beckons up the sun
From the horizon, and signs back the night.
His power can do as much for you.

ANOTHER.

His power can do as much for you. Ah, Madame!
Heaven grant ere long we see you on that throne
Where faithful Sweden looks for you!

CHRISTINA.
Where faithful Sweden looks for you! Christina
Hath ever lived for Sweden's happiness.
But to us all there comes an hour that knows
No happiness save that beyond the tomb.

1st envoy.

Ay, but upon your brow suffer, at least
This crown, that so, when Death prepares to strike
The woman, seeing on your front its circle,
He may confounded wing him back to Heaven,
To question if the polished dart he grasps
Were sharpened for the queen.

christina.

Were sharpened for the queen. There's need of courage
For that. Oh, heavy is the diadem
To dying brows! When drop the palsied head
And the relaxing hand, sceptres and crowns
Are weary weights to carry to the tomb;
And when seven times the voice of God shall echo
Along the sepulchres, and the scared dead
Make answer, kings shall be the palest of them!
And more than one, arising, shall express,
Forgetting crown and sceptre, leave them hid
In the remotest shadows of his prison.