 | Claribel and Other Poems |  |
45
SCENE IV.
An Antechamber in the Palace. Enter two Attendants, meeting.FIRST ATTENDANT
Where is the king?
SECOND ATTENDANT
You bring him news of them?
FIRST ATTENDANT
Yes, yes! but let me pass.
SECOND ATTENDANT
They're taken, then?
Nay, tell me all, and then I'll lead you straight
Into the presence.
FIRST ATTENDANT
Well, I am the first
By far: so it does not matter. They are safe.
SECOND ATTENDANT
Where did you find them?
FIRST ATTENDANT
Some few miles away.
We miss'd them once,—but found their track again
By blood upon the ground.
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He had spurr'd hard.
FIRST ATTENDANT
It was his own. No doubt the friends had fought
Like desperate fiends,—they were most nearly match'd.
It seems his wounds had burst again, and bled
Till he grew faint, so that at last he fell
From off his horse; and when our troop came up
The princess was endeavouring to raise
His body—for he seem'd to be near dead—
Into the saddle; and the good horse knelt,
As he would help her. 'Twas a piteous sight.
There was not even a tear on her white face.
But for the king's reward not one of us
Had dared to bring them back. She made us weep
Though she spoke not a word, even when we took
Her lover from her arms. We laid him down
Gently upon some boughs: 'twas a kind youth;
We all of us had loved him. He ne'er winced
The while we bore him; but still smiled on her,
Just as a mother smiles on a sick child;
And she walk'd by him with his hand in hers,
Keeping her eyes on his; and the good horse
Follow'd them almost like a funeral friend.
As if he knew their sorrow.
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'Faith, 'tis sad.
FIRST ATTENDANT
Ah! 'twas a bad deed, friend! to kill the prince.
But let me go!
SECOND ATTENDANT
This way! the king is here.
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