 | The Poetical Works of (Richard Monckton Milnes) Lord Houghton |  |
THE EGYPTIAN'S STORY
“Once, when in Syria he had let war loose,And was reducing, under one strong sway,
Druses, and Christians, and Mohammedans,
He heard that his lost child, the favourite
Born of a favourite wife, had been let fall
By a young careless Nubian nurse, and hurt,
So as to cripple it through all its days.
No word of anger passed the warrior's lips,—
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Rested a single moment. But due time
Brought round his glad return, and he once more
Entered his hall, within which, on each side,
Long marble stairs curved towards the balcony,
Where right and left the women's chambers spread;
Upon the landing stood the glad Hareem
To welcome him with music, shouts, and songs;
Yet he would not ascend a single step,
But cried—‘Where is the careless Nubian girl
That let my child fall on the stony ground?’
Trembling and shrieking down one marble flight
She was pushed forward, till she reached the floor:
Then Ibrahim caught her in one giant grasp,
Dragged her towards him, and one brawny hand
Tight-twisting in her long and glossy hair,
And with the other drawing the sharp sword
Well known at Nezib and at Koniah,
Sheer from her shoulders severed the young head,
And casting it behind him, at few bounds
Cleared the high stair and to his bosom pressed
The darling wife his deed had just reveng'd.
O! he is god-like in his hour of rage!
His wrath is like the plague that falls on man
With indiscriminate fury, and for this
His name is honoured through the spacious East,
Where all things powerful meet their just reward.”
| The Poetical Works of (Richard Monckton Milnes) Lord Houghton | |