The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott :: :: University of Virginia Library

He smiled, and yet his right hand sought the hilt
Of his keen sword. Smiling, he turn'd away,
To hide the rage that shook his inmost soul;
And, while the mourners linger'd yet, to pay
The debt of love and grief, with troubled scowl
Approach'd them, follow'd by his guards. He stood
Beside the grave; he trembled, and the blood
Rush'd to his heart. “Widow! I come too late,
And yet I came to pardon and to save;
But all men, kings themselves, must bow to fate.
I cannot call thy husband from the grave;
But I would dry thy tears. Behold in me
Thy king and friend: nor destitute is she
On whom the royal condescension turns
An eye of favour. With a doubting frown,
Thy son beholds me. In his bosom burns
The spirit that I like. Though born a clown,

190

Yet if a clown he die, be his the blame.
I will advance him to the height of fame,
Honour, and wealth; and Eva shall repair
To Enoch's marble halls. She was not born
To waste her sweetness on the desert air.”
Zillah looked up; but sorrow conquer'd scorn.
She tried to speak; but her lip, quivering, fell.
Then in sweet tones, but deep and terrible,
Timna, like truth denouncing guilt, address'd
Th' astonish'd son of Hamath the severe.

“Thou bane and terror of a land oppress'd!
King by thy sire's successful treason, hear!
Too soon, dost thou forget what causes laid
Methuliel at a subject's feet, betray'd!
That evil comes of evil, multiplied
Still by its increase, till endurance fling
His burden at the feet of tyrant pride,
And vengeance, hallow'd by long suffering,
Arraying havock under all the sky,
Woe's dreadful cure is its enormity!
Pleased with thy people's bane, thy law of force,
Thou gazest smiling on a realm undone,
And know'st not that thou gazest on a corse,
Whose features swell and redden in the sun,
While the worms' motion, in their hungry strife,
Makes an abhorr'd caricature of life.
See where, unseen, their loathsome feast they share!
See!—why wilt thou not see that death is there?

191

But, last of Cain's blind race, thou worse than blind,
Hark! there are whispers in the boding wind!
Thy victims bid me speak their murderer's doom.
Truth, told to thee, shall be to thee a lie,
And falsehood truth. Friendship and love shall bloom
Like venomous flowers to thee: thy jaundiced eye,
Hating their innocence, shall gloat on weeds;
For cherish'd foes shall rule thee and thy deeds;
And thou on Danger's lap thy rest shall take,
Till, thunder-stunn'd, thou wake aghast, to gaze
On lightnings that the earth's deep centre shake;
Then rush, for very dread, into the blaze—
Dead, with a single shriek! while all who hear
That one wild yell die also—kill'd by fear.”
He spoke; and Eva swoon'd on Timna's breast,
And Baalath turn'd black with jealous ire;
Avenging furies tore his heart unbless'd,
And sear'd his frantic veins with poison'd fire.
Mute stood the guards; on them a new light broke,
And slumb'ring mischief in their souls awoke,
While Jared from the scabbard flash'd his sword,
And Timna smiled, like faith, to die prepared;
But Baalath's commanding nod restored
To Jared's thigh the weapon rashly bared.
“Woe's words,” he said, “like swords, are blind and sharp:
We ask not music from a broken harp.

192

Our visit is ill-timed.” He spoke, and turn'd,
And climb'd his chariot, while his humbled pride
Felt that a despot in his vitals burn'd
Who fear'd not kings. Then down the mountain's side,
And through the glens, with flowers and verdure gay,
T'wards Enoch's thousand towers he wound his way.
Beyond the valleys, and their hermit streams,
Far on the mountain-girded plain they shone,
Above the smoky ocean, which the beams
Of evening painted. Gihon flow'd alone,
Unseen, beneath the hated curtain deep,
Where deeds were done “that made the angels weep.”
While they beheld, in heav'nly sadness bow'd,
That wilderness of homes, that desert of the crowd.