 | The Lady of La Garaye |  |
Their smiling eyes have met—those eager two:
She looks at Claud, as questioning which to do:
He rides—reins in—looks down the torrent's course,—
Pats the sleek neck of his sure-footed horse,—
Stops,—measures spaces with his eagle eye,
Tries a new track, and yet returns to try.
Sudden, while pausing at the very brink,
The damp leaf-covered ground appears to sink,
And the keen instinct of the wise dumb brute
Escapes the yielding earth, the slippery root;
With a wild effort as if taking wing
The monstrous gap he clears with one safe spring;
Reaches—(and barely reaches)—past the roar
Of the wild stream, the further lower shore,—
Scrambles—recovers—rears—and panting stands
Safe 'neath his master's nerveless trembling hands.
She looks at Claud, as questioning which to do:
He rides—reins in—looks down the torrent's course,—
Pats the sleek neck of his sure-footed horse,—
Stops,—measures spaces with his eagle eye,
Tries a new track, and yet returns to try.
Sudden, while pausing at the very brink,
The damp leaf-covered ground appears to sink,
And the keen instinct of the wise dumb brute
Escapes the yielding earth, the slippery root;
With a wild effort as if taking wing
The monstrous gap he clears with one safe spring;
Reaches—(and barely reaches)—past the roar
Of the wild stream, the further lower shore,—
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Safe 'neath his master's nerveless trembling hands.
| The Lady of La Garaye | |