Mano a poetical history of the time of the close of the tenth century concerning the adventures of a Norman knight which fell part in Normandy part in Italy. In four books. By Richard Watson Dixon |
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| III. | BOOK III. |
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 | Mano |  |
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BOOK III.
I.— HOW MANO WENT TO ROME.
Happy the man who so hath Fortune triedThat likewise he her poor relation knows:
To whom both much is given and denied:
To riches and to poverty he owes
An equal debt: of both he makes acquist,
And moderate in all his mind he shows.
But ill befalls the man who hath not missed
Aught of his heart's desires, in plenty nursed:
For evil things he knows not to resist:
And, aiding their assault, himself is worst
Against himself, with self-destructive rage.
But states are with another evil cursed,
For falling into luxury with age,
They burst in tumults, swollen with bloody shame,
Which old exploits aggrieve and not assuage.
Past temperance doth the present feast inflame;
Past grandeur like too heavy armour weighs:
Great without virtue is an evil name.
Rome, that was this world's head in ancient days,
Proud, lustrous, bloody, glorious witch and queen,
Beheld by all the nations with amaze,
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Being fallen now into her shameless age,
With limy ruin overspread her scene.
Old Tiber wound through her waste heritage:
Of bygone fame her virtue was the spoil:
Who seemed best was the worst bird in her cage;—
That Vicar, who should others' sins assoil,
The Pope upon his throne, blazing with gold
And purple, which his monstrous crimes did soil,
Bursting with pride, in ignorance thickly rolled,
Void both of knowledge and of charity,
Seemed the last plague poured on the world grown old:
He seemed the very Antichrist to be,
Or else a statue and an idol dumb,
In God's own temple sitting wickedly.
Thus Gerbert, ere his day of power was come,
Had oftentimes in fearless words declared
In Rheims before the Council, touching Rome:
Gerbert, who now was pope: and now who dared
To notify his reign by acts severe
Against the abused time, and change prepared:
But when he gan the sanctuary to clear,
He was by death prevented in strange way:
And impious vice her front again gan rear.
Scarce had he gained that seat for his brief stay,
And straightway his stern rule commenced then,
When Mano reached that city of high sway,
Turning his course westward from east again,
To meet his former friend and master there,
After those wars 'gainst Greek and Saracen.
And with him good Sir Thurold did repair
From mountainous Spoletum through the vales
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With them were others more: but me the gales
Of Fortune wafted not to Tiber's shore:
Sickness withheld: close furled were my sails.
And whilst I was delayed in trouble sore,
Mano and Thurold with great Gerbert met,
And made such joy that never might be more:
For Mano seemed the grievance to forget
Of Blanche's marriage, nor the part therein
Which Gerbert bore to hold in memory yet.
And Gerbert saw his cause in arms begin
To prosper, and to issue toward success
The plans that stood his spacious mind within:
Alas, full soon the chance must be to express
Which that restored friendship broke again,
And of their counsels made unhappiness.
Sir Mano honest was, as I maintain,
Even in that thing which brought to him his fall:
But honesty in fight with fate is vain.
Him, howso, whom so lately with the pall
Now with that pluvial he saw magnified,
Which habits him who is the head of all,
Well pleased was he: and Gerbert bade him ride
At his right hand unto the Lateran,
Showing him all the mighty city's pride.
Then came the nobles, and the people ran
To hail the knights who had wrought victory:
The Præfect there, and every high-placed man,
Who bore the signs of Roman majesty,
The Consuls, the Decarchons: through the town
They marched all in a royal pageantry:
So that this light of honour and renown
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The occasion of his friend gave him the crown,
And the drawn lot seemed the like lot to draw.
II.— WHAT HAPPENED IN ROME: THAT MANO CAME IN DANGER OF A FALL.
But with no longer date than doth make greenThe lingering wintry ash among the trees,
This favouring promise of the time was seen
Mid lowering clouds to mourn its own decease.
The blowing buds, put forth with rein so free,
Fell from the branch by angry destinies,
And severed honour from the rooted tree,
Which still endured, and ready stood to bear,
Though each new birth still fell to fate's decree.
Sir Mano, living in that city fair,
That head of earth, and empire's lofty seat,
Beheld what strangest things were mingled there:
For opposites within the same may meet:
And where religion held her sovereign throne,
There in her shade lay murder and deceit:
O'er rapine vile was saintly order thrown,
And evil deeds were wrapped in priestly fold.
The pictured walls, the images of stone,
Showing the acts of saints and martyrs old,
Were by apostates from apostles shamed,
Who in the temple's precinct bought and sold.
And albeit Gerbert, now Sylvester named,
Wrought sore those dark abuses to abate,
Yet hardly this French pope his own reclaimed
Among those creatures of an earlier date:
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And all his steps were marked by secret hate.
The sight of these things made Sir Mano groan
With troubled wonder that in holiest place
Impiety and fraud were highest flown:
And while he fed his heart on foul disgrace,
A thing befell, which in the sequel cast
The cloud of fate on fortune's budding grace,
And drove him from that land, as from the last.
But first, regard herein, I you require,
The destiny exact that him o'ercast.
A man in sin may satisfy desire,
But pay no forfeit, and forgiven be,
If fate so will, that gives to all her hire.
This Mano found, ye may full well agree,
When folly he committed by the way,
And yet lost not the name of piety.
A man may mean the best to do and say,
But by the best be humbled and depressed,
And by the best work best his own decay:
Because the best may like the worst be dressed,
If fate, mocking the best, her fraud apply
By his own best to slay who means the best.
This other horn of fate, now lifted high,
Likewise Sir Mano felt, when that befell
Which sudden was, and came full dangerously.
When now, being sad in thought, and meaning well,
To ill for good his deeds by all were bent;
And in misprision prized by fatal spell.
Yea, who should most have known his good intent,
And in whose grace he sought the most to abound,
That man the most his trouble did augment.
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Say rather that transgression pays the price,
In whatsoever coin the same be found.
To mark the extremes of fate be not o'er-nice:
Whether of evil seeming good unshent,
Or good ill-seeming smitten in a trice.
For if the sinner fail of punishment,
And then in doing well be ill apaid,
This of the other is equivalent,
And may be consequent, howso delayed.—
Nor say, the fool may everything commit,
And ne'er with him a reckoning be made:
But if the good from goodness start one whit,
Down is he smitten by a thousand woes:
A thousand justices in judgment sit,
A thousand lictors deal most righteous blows.—
Nor add that if the good deserve no blame,
But do a thing that like to evil shows,
Such as fools daily do, it ends the same.
III.— THE STORY OF LAURENTIUS AND HIS CHILDREN.
To tell then by what snare stern Fate o'ercastSir Mano's fortunes: On a certain day
Into his lodging secretly there passed
A damsel fair, who piteously gan pray,
And knelt to him, her mistress dear to aid:
“For if thou aid her not, none other may,
None in this evil place,” the damsel said,
“Of fair renown for actions good and brave,
Worthy to hear the prayer that I have prayed.
Hear therefore thou, and grant the boon I crave
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That thou mayest shun it, if thou fear the grave.
A man there lives in power and station high,
Who sometime wrought a dismal deed in Rome,
The fame of which lurks in obscurity:
For horrors here on horrors quickly come,
Like raindrops, which on one another pelt,
Obliterating each the other's room.
“This man, when bold Crescentius lately dealt
His blow against the Emperor, but thereby
Wrought his own fall, and bitter vengeance felt,—
This man was set in judgment's office high
By the triumphant Germans: but the place
Where he heard justice was a murderous sty.
They of the insurrection in his face
Saw ready written executioners,
Whips, irons, dungeons, and refused grace.
“Among the rest who thus in case adverse
Were cast, a certain senator was found,
Her sire to whom thy handmaid ministers.—
Noble Laurentius stood before him bound
With his two sons, who in the attempt had shared,
Which first upraised, then dashed our hopes to ground.
He for Rome's safety now his own despaired,
And was commanded to the gibbet straight,
And his two sons in equal ruin paired;
When, lo! his daughter flung her piteous weight
Before the tyrant's throne, and clasped his knees
With frantic supplication 'gainst their fate.
“The ruthless man at first but bade her cease,
And with rude push of hands her prayer denied,
Threatening to add her sentence unto these:
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To stay the deed of death: and thereto sent
Messengers to that end, who swiftly hied.
For her fair face with tender ravishment
Right suddenly transformed him, as he gazed,
And unto mercy turned his cruel bent.
His own obduracy the wretch amazed:
Alas! had he to justice sooner given
What now to lust, for cursed he had been praised.
For great Laurentius' soul was gone to heaven
Ere the reprieve came nigh: his sons alone
Were rescued, who to dungeon back were driven.
“Then of her father's death such bitter moan
She made, and held his slayer in such hate
As almost turned to fear his hope new-blown:
His hope new blown, which feared to demonstrate
Its evil tenor to that sorrow true:
He only said, ‘Let it thy rage abate
‘That if my erring voice thy father slew,
Thy brothers by my gift in life remain.’
Nor more that day did he his suit pursue.
“But in short space his thoughts returned again;
And he assayed my lady day by day,
To her entombed heart seeking in vain.
Anon (false love is hasty, true can stay
For altered mind) one rage another woke,
And both her brethren threatened he to slay:
And, as she still disdained his greedy yoke,
Holding her constant mind by threats unbent,
His vengeful arm let fall indeed the stroke.
Her elder brother to the scaffold went;
And since he finds his suit no better crowned,
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Now he prepares the last, the heaviest wound,
Renewing execution on her fere,
The truest gentleman that is on ground,
The last remaining, and to her most dear.”
IV.— MANO UNDERTAKES THE VENGEANCE OF LAURENTIUS'S DAUGHTER.
“Touching the matter of Crescentius,Who made revolt against the Emperor.”
Mano replied, “Rumour hath reached to us.
For twice he strove to shut the Roman door
Against the Germans: and twice strove in vain.
Once, when he aimed the city to restore
Under the Greeks, in the first Otho's reign:
And for that turn he suffered banishment,
But afterwards essayed the same again:
Thinking, the Emperor then being resident
With but small force in Rome, to take him so:
And only chance frustrated his intent:
Whereon being driven to Saint Angelo
By the stout German power, there he sustained
Long time both siege and famine: till, brought low,
To one he yielded who no mercy deigned.”
—“Yea,” said the woman, “and to those who shared
His bold attempt dire punishments remained:
For him indeed 'twas bitter, when he dared
Under consent of the Emperor appear
Amid the Saxon tents, whither he fared.—
By stealth he left his tower, and ventured near,
Clad in blue mantle, and with covered head
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But cruel taunts his faith dishonoured.
‘Now is the Saxon tent the entertainer,’
(With visage sour the third young Otho said,)
‘Of him that was of emperors constrainer,
Prince of the Romans, and the city's head,
Giver of laws, and of new popes ordainer.’—
Hard was it thus to be to scaffold led:
But harder was the fate reserved for those
Who followed him: more sore were they bested.
Thus, John Philagathus, whom pope he chose,
Sometime of Piacenza archbishop,
Was great in wealth before these troubles rose:
But being taken as usurping pope,
The cruel conqueror robbed him of tongue,
Cut off his nose, and both his ears did crop,
And him thus maimed into a dungeon flung,
Where he was found by Nilus his old friend,
Nilus the Eremite, whom fame hath sung:
To whom full many unto this season wend
To find the future from his augury.—
He, grieving much to see fulfilled the end
Which he had promised, left his covert shy,
And, viewing how the maimed wretch was laid,
Rebuked the emperor with authority,
And his great cruelty did so upbraid
With zeal from heaven, that insolence was quelled,
And for the future base revenge seemed stayed.
Alas! a moment more the effect dispelled
Of holy age upon remorseless youth:
And soon that barbarous minister prevailed
Who holds us all in fear, who knows not ruth,
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If thou art brave, and lovest gentle truth.”
Then Mano said, “This scarce should be essayed
By any man, and last of all by me.
For know that he who lately Pope is made
In place of him who bore this cruelty,
Gerbert, is my great master, whom I hold
Above all men in honour's highest gre.
He in the Papal number was enrolled
By him who slew John and Crescentius,
Otho the third, his pupil young and bold.
Wherefore for me to stir is perilous,
Since Gerbert now is mingled verily
With the forceful Cæsar fierce and tyrannous.
But yet his virtue wills not villany.
Say therefore thou what way I may assist
To your desires, and what I can will I.”
Then said the damsel, “Even so as I wist
I find thy worth: know therefore what we find:
(Now sinking day the darkness doth enlist,
And bids to aid our part): it is our mind
To bid to banquet that unhonoured guest,
Whom cruelty made fell, false love made kind:
There shall he meet my lady richly dressed,
Whose face, no more in horror lifted up,
Shall smile on him, and bid him to the fest.
Then, when he hopes that he in joy shall sup,
(Such life such fate deserves) we have in plot
To work his death by sword or poisoned cup.
But women's arms are weak, their hands do not
According to the counsel of their heart,
Or changed hearts make their purposes forgot:
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And trust to thee this execution drear,
Who hast a mind that terror cannot start.
And now, behold! the hour is drawing near:
The trap is set: the strong and hungry prey
Comes to the bait, which he shall never tear,
Ere the sprung spring shall dash him down. Away!”
V.— THE ADVENTURE PURSUED.
Hereat with haste Sir Mano took his sword,And through the Lateran garden they two sped.
Like the tightening and the loosening of a cord,
Whereby a barge is up the river led,
The maiden's hand in his still touched palm
Drew him with fierceness as she onward fled:
Till for their rushing there was total calm:
And passing through a doorway they were hid
In a dark place, suffused with scents of balm.
The may laid hand upon a shutter-lid:
“Behold, and slay the monster:” saying so
The noiseless shutter back in groove she slid,
And showed the room beyond in light: when, lo!
Instead of some grim-visaged cruel man,
And woman in great horror shrinking low,
Or towering high with face by hate drawn wan,
A beautiful young man was there espied
Kneeling before the feet of a woman,
Whose face of beauty o'er him bent soft-eyed:
A rich feast spread, sweet burning scents and wine
Seemed ready, as for bridegroom left with bride.
At sight of which Mano withdrew his eyne:
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“Even as the butcher slays a fatted swine.”
Even as she spoke, there came from the other side
Of that fair room a groan of misery:
A window dropped, and in with hasty stride
A young man walked, and a drawn sword held he:
Whereat the other leaped upon his feet.
“Ah, wretch! that hast beguiled my love from me,”
The new man said, “by fraud and cursed deceit!”
And quick they joined in fight with deadly din.
But he, that had been kneeling, with such heat
Pressed on the other, that with weapon thin
Full soon he lanced his heart: nay, rather seemed
That other to his death to strive to win,
So soon he fell, so quick his life-blood streamed.
Then cried the woman to the conqueror,
“Thou wretch! with whom in dotage I have dreamed
“For one dead moment, thinking thee no more
My father's and my brother's murderer,
Know that I bade thee enter by this door
“Not for love's joys, but death's revenges drear.
And if thy fair looks and false constancy
Wrought me to seem to grant thee thy love-prayer,
“To save my living brother, lo, I see
The effect thereof in this new added blood.
Forgive me, father, brothers! forgive me
“Lorenzo, proved by death a lover good,
Whom I have sent to death: ah, for that death
Thus Constance puts away her womanhood.”
Hereat with stabbing knife and hissing breath
On him she flies; who keeps her well at bay,
And turneth with his sword, and parryeth.
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And Mano long before the last word here
Was in the midst, and mingled with the fray:
He sought that man; who, stout and void of fear,
Held him full long; and up and down they fought,
And many cruel wounds between them were:
But at the last the man to ground was brought:
Yet thence again, when Mano nearer drew,
Springing, that lady for a shield upcaught;
Who, being swung on high between the two,
Cried, “Smite and spare not, even though I die.”
But Mano, her avoiding, smote him through,
And with his own stroke prone on earth did lie.
Senseless through bleeding wounds: so lay those three
By one another in that tragedy.
But he who first had fallen, difficultly
Forced his still grasping hands from the waist to the throat
Of that fair woman, that his agony
Might be her strangling: and the same, I wot,
Had happened soon enough, but that the may
Who brought Sir Mano, his hands asunder smote:
Then like a snake uncurled in death he lay.
VI.— HOW MANO WAS BANISHED BY GERBERT.
When death hath done his part, and in his tombShut up the world, the judgment shall begin.
Mano, awaking as from death, found doom
And judgment waiting him, as if for sin,
Instead of joy of dear-bought victory.
For rising dizzily that room within,
Where stood the lady and the may thereby,
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Being herself saved through his courage high,
The may who first had drawn him to the strife,
Then staunched his bleeding wounds with healing skill)
Behold, amid the gloom of shadows rife,
Grave forms he sees, which half the chamber fill,
And fix upon him their regardful eyes:
First among whom, and ominous of ill,
Gerbert himself he gins to recognise;
Round whom his ministers in station stand,
All summoned by the clash, the groans and cries.—
He now Sir Mano sternly bore in hand,
And, as the ruler over all supreme,
The cause of quarrel asked with grim demand.
Then those two women all the tale to him
Rehearsed from first to last with eager tongue,
Their woes that like a sea of blood did swim;
And told how seeking vengeance on great wrong,
They bade that knight become the instrument
Of death on him who there lay dead along.
All which was heard with visage still unbent
By Gerbert, and in silence drear and cold,
Such silence as the tale to distance sent,
And severed it from those by whom 'twas told:
Until incredible as phantasy
E'en to themselves appeared their sufferings old,
And their new deed as done but wickedly.—
Such was the effect of silence long and drear,
More terrible than closest scrutiny.
Then questioned he, redoubling thus their fear;
And though with very truth they made reply,
In no wise gained they way into his ear:
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Their story, and pronounced his stern award.
—“Ye, even as yourselves do testify
“Have slain a man by treachery at board,
Of him alleging wrongs inordinate,
Which drew upon him your unsparing sword.
“Have ye approached to justice to delate
One of those injuries that ye complain,
Seeking the open order of the state?
“Not so: I know not aught that now ye feign:
Nor, were it so, would there from thence ensue
The extenuation of a murder plain.
“But this I know, that by a sentence true
Thy father died, who seconded the raid
Of bold Crescentius and his desperate crew:
“And after him thy brother forfeit paid:
The third, thy other brother, living still,
By mercy respited, in bonds is laid.
“Now in return ye have not spared to kill
The judge, who spared your side the extremest cost,
Through two attackers brought with wicked skill.
“I therefore judge your lives in forfeit lost
To violated law for murderous deed,
Though of strict right I waive the uttermost:
“For judgment's arrow mercy's point shall lead;
Nor used is all the law's severity,
If on you both for sentence stand decreed
The cloister's dimness, to that day ye die.”
—“Then praised be thou, my soul's mediciner!
I would not otherwise, nor doom deny:
“I would not purge the thick wax of thine ear,
Nor scale thine eyes to justice,” loud did cry
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“Nothing was left to me except to die
Beside my lover fallen from life's delight;
But thou hast given me life in misery.”
Then hand in hand those two passed out of sight,
Thrust by the guards, to meet their life-long doom:
And Mano there was left in bloody plight.
To whom thus Gerbert spake: while from the gloom
Of his deep presence steadfastness and pain
In revolution, like moved light, did come:
“Thou too, in whom I trusted, I am fain
To meet thee now with sorrow, and rebuke:
For thou hast broken service with loose rein,
“Dishonouring me, to whom thou most shouldst look,
In my high office: death is thine by right,
Who hast to death thy fellow servant struck.
“Oh, Mano, camest thou like a thief by night,
And, with another joined, settedst thy steel
Against a single man in unfair fight?
“Not so, not so; this I both know and feel:
But thou hast taken taint: and this time first
Thy new-found wounds I call not honour's seal.
“I say not that the best becomes the worst
In thee, though thee the best of all I know
That have with me the road of days traversed:
“But hence thou must from out this city go.”
—Then Mano, laughing loudly, cried, “A friend!
I have a friend to hold in weal or woe!
“A man to be right faithful to the end!
In judgment undeceived, and knowing good
Where others evil falsely apprehend!
“Unerring as the hands upon the Rood
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Who was aforetime fair and mild of mood:
“Faithful was he to many to the end:
Of judgment clear: in many knowing good
Where others sought but ill to apprehend:
“For will and deed he rightly understood.—
Only in me this Vicar of God's throne
No mirror showed of perfect rectitude.”
Then Gerbert sternly said, “If there be one
Trusted for worth, who less than worth is found
In high designs, there is one way alone:
“His former service falls not to the ground,
But he has run his length: yet to upbraid
Needs not, to break old friendship with such wound.”
Then Mano laughed again, and fiercely said,
“Servant of servants, if by villany
In combat I took odds, being afraid,”—
—“I said not so,” said Gerbert—“Nay, then I
Of all that thou mayest think, put by the rest;
And thy deep reasons seek not curiously.”
Thus with a high look locked he in his breast
Reproach, defiance, anger; all but pride:
Which only from some taunt was not repressed.
And certainly pope Gerbert on his side
Was neither friend nor judge: betwixt the two
From friendship failed he, justice to o'erride.
Friendship against appearance would be true,
Justice would search a cause from end to end;
The one not look, the other all things view.
But the half pardon but insults the friend
Whom the half sentence wrongs: wholly to quit,
Or not at all, doth judgment's seat commend.
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When he, misjudging, balanced judgment's sway
With other thought in his deep working wit.
And thus of policy he wrought decay,
When Mano now, unlet by any one,
Out of the fatal chamber took his way,
Destined no more to prop the Roman throne.
VII.— WHAT LED GERBERT TO MISJUDGE MANO.
When two fair ships that in one road are mooredThe wave uplifts, their dipping hulls incline
This way and that together: then restored
To calm, together sleep above the brine.
Their play, their peace alike would make it seem
That the same suns upon their course must shine.
But presently one seeks the ocean stream,
At anchor still the other's governance:
Or both sail diverse in an hour supreme.
So they who meet by friendship's sacred chance
Would join their courses, and together speed,
Finding no cause of sudden severance:
But Fate's deep kedge lies in life's watery breade,
Life's bellying sail is spread to destiny,
From one another those paired barks recede.
Gerbert with Mano held society,
And loved him much, and seemed to hold him fast,
Making him main to all his counsels high.
Greater the marvel therefore, when he cast
On pretext false his helper from his side,
And struck him without justice at the last.
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That Gerbert wrought by politic intent,
Which weighed with him above all things beside:
That therefore was the sentence banishment,
(To rid him thence,) and not such penalty
By which, if he had erred, he might repent:
Whence, being no more in trust, to magnify
The matter, and engrieve by words, were vain,
And better to depart indifferently.
But I, against him arguing, would maintain
That Gerbert in this deed was worse to see
Than his renown, of low and captious strain.
For sometimes men that are of high degree
Carry not gentle thought in lordly vest;
And, in their office, of offence are free.
Such men, perchance, from whom they have oppressed
Receiving some strong lesson, presently
Become of mien more courteous toward the rest.
But still the original baseness deep doth lie
Within them: and their false conclusion is,
That since to all they now use courtesy,
And with one man alone have fallen from this,
Therefore the right has been with them alway:
The fault, before and in the strife, was his.
I thought that Gerbert thus had gone astray
In Mano, and would not again repeat
For others what he sought to do and say:
But that he ne'er would from that wrong retreat,
Being puffed and swollen beyond all charity,
Though cautious grown, upon his lofty seat.
But in that argument unsound was I:
For Gerbert was no churl of vulgar mind
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Yet something was there in him that inclined
The balance against Mano in that day,
As they who end this history shall find:
For ere from Normandy he took his way,
He had secretly freed Mano from the vow
Which bound him service to the Church to pay.
Wherefore perchance less unregardful now,
When he repelled his friend so utterly
To all men's seeming, was in truth the blow.
Well might he deem that he to Normandy
Would thence return: and there Joanna lay,
His loving friend, in dreary nunnery.
This quittance Mano knew not, when his stay
Broke in the waters whither it was cast,
And life's new breeze blew through his anchorage bay:
But whispers rose, which o'er the trembling vast
Invited him, and caused him not to mourn
While his brave vessel clothed her rocking mast.
Unto past cheer his busy mind gan turn:
Spent fires must die: new fuel verily
Wakes an old fire in other wise to burn.
But if those two had still kept company,
Neither so short had been Sylvester's date,
Nor to such end reached the knight's tragedy.
But other drafts were in the book of fate.
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VIII.— MANO PARTS FROM THUROLD, BUT NOT FROM FERGANT.
Old Thurold, heavy-hearted at this caseFrom Rome with Mano to Spoletum rode,
And more than he enraged with his disgrace,
At evening gained with him my poor abode,
Wherein with sickness sharp I lay immured:
Where, when the old knight had all that history showed,
With glittering eyes obedience he abjured
Thenceforth to Gerbert; deeming it foul wrong
That had to his dear Mano shame procured.
—“Certes the French pope speaks with German tongue
Quoth he, “and wary is he, as it seems:
And such the man must be who goes along
“The priestly path that leads to Rome from Rheims:
Hostile to Normans must such man be found;
Yet may he not be safe, as now he deems,
“Doing despite to us upon God's ground.”
But Mano said, “In silence it is best
To feel the smarting of a cureless wound.
“For not with Gerbert can I ease my breast
In open quarrel and plain enmity.
Nor would past friendship from remembrance wrest:
“For know (if I here separate from thee),
That to have lost his fellowship is grief
Beyond the reach of wrathful mind to me;
“To me, perhaps to him: and this mischief
Can never be recured; now hence must I
My noble father, be I loth or lief:
“Nor doubt I where my voyage next must lie;
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Comes to me, guiding whither I should hie.
“I go to seek thy daughter, as is just,
Diantha, whom from Italy I led,
Who fled the Norman court through evil lust,
“As to our bitter scorn by all is said.
Thou blamest not my doing in that case,
But mine it is to go, most honoured head,
“To find what may be left against disgrace.”
Then they shook hands: and Thurold one word spake,
Turning away his high but fallen face:
“Son, thou hast wrung my heart before it break.”
But Mano turned to go. Then from my chair
Rose I, and cried, “I go with thee for make,
“And still with thee by grace of God will fare,
Whither thou goest: and from land to land
What lot to thee be cast, the same to share.”
Then Mano smiled, and gave to me his hand,
Saying, “To have thee with me betters me
More than much else in this my waniand,
“Did but thy body with thy mind agree.”
—“My sickness is of mind: weary am I
To see the working of man's misery,
“And of this sickness sore if I should die,
Fain would I die at home in my own land;
Nor wonder thou that I with thee would fly.
“For now the end of all things is at hand:
The Antichrist is come, who comes before;
Then of the just the graves shall empty stand,
“And last the General Judgment opens door.”
Thus answered I, feeling full near to death,
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Deeming the earth then drawing her last breath.
Ah, I live still; and still the Antichrist
Reigns in the world, not passing underneath:
And still the dead sleep on in sealed cist.
END OF BOOK III.
| Mano | |