Poems by Two Brothers | ||
KING CHARLES'S VISION
[A Vision somewhat resembling the following, and prophetic of the Northern Alexander, is said to have been witnessed by Charles XI. of Sweden, the antagonist of Sigismund. The reader will exclaim, “Credat Judæus Apella!”]
In his lonely palace-tower,
When there came on his ears a heavy groan,
At the silent midnight hour.
But nothing might he see;
And he only heard the nightly bird
That shriek'd right fearfully.
To his casement's arched frame;
“And he was aware of a light that was there,”
But he wist not whence it came.
'Twas calm as night might be;
But broad and bright the flashing light
Stream'd red and radiantly.
Of stalwart steel he drew;
And he rais'd the lamp in his better hand,
But its flame was dim and blue.
But harsh turn'd the jarring key:
“By the Virgin's might,” cried the king that night,
“All is not as it should be!”
And slowly again did it close;
And within and without, and all about,
A sound of voices rose.
For the voices his name did call;
Then on he past, till he came at last
To the pillar'd audience-hall.
Many and carv'd and tall,
(Four and twenty on each side)
Stand in that lordly hall.
And struck the deadly blow;
The king he had strode in the red red blood,
Often, afore, and now:
As it was this fearful hour;
For his eyes were not dry, and his hair stood on high,
And his soul had lost its power.
In fiery circles ran;
And sounds of death, and chattering teeth,
And gibbering tongues began.
Round a lofty table sit;
And each in his hand did a volume hold,
Wherein mighty things were writ.
On their cheeks was the flush of ire:
Their armour was brac'd, and their helmets were lac'd,
And their hollow eyes darted fire.
And locks like the raven's wing,
And in regal state at that board there sate
The likeness of a king.
And with jewels spangled o'er,
And rich as the beam of the sun on the stream,
A sparkling robe he wore.
Though his robe was jewell'd o'er,
Though brilliant the vest on his mailed breast,
Yet they all were stain'd with gore!
And his look was high command;
And each, when he spoke, struck his mighty book,
And rais'd his shadowy hand.
And quick was his ceaseless stroke;
And loud was the shock on the echoing block,
As the steel shook the solid oak.
Of the wretches who died by his blow;
And fast fell each head on the pavement red,
And warm did the life-blood flow.
“What fearful sights are those?”
Said the ghostly king to the earthly king,
“They are signs of future woes!”
“By St. Peter, who art thou?”
Said the ghostly king to the earthly king,
“I shall be, but I am not now.”
“But when will thy time draw nigh?”
“Oh! the sixth after thee will a warrior be,
“And that warrior am I.
“And conquest shall hover o'er me;
“And the kingdoms shall shake, and the nations shall quake,
“And the thrones fall down before me.
“And the haughty Dane shall bow;
“And the Pole shall fly from my piercing eye,
“And the scowl of my clouded brow.
“And the red-tongued flames arise;
“And my pathway shall be on the midnight sea,
“'Neath the frown of the wintry skies.
“And the waste of the weary plain,
“Over ice and snow, where the dark streams flow,
“Thro' the woods of the wild Ukraine.
“And the hand that shall slay me unshown;
“Yet in every clime, thro' the lapse of all time,
“Shall my glorious conquests be known.
“With the gore of misery;
“And swift as this flame shall the light of my fame
“O'er the world as brightly fly.”
When all that pageant bright,
And the glitter of gold, and the statesmen old,
Fled into the gloom of night!
The Grey Brother.
The Baron of Smalhome.
“Of mighty magnes-stone.”
Spenser.
“Thus proudly PIGHT upon our Phrygian plains!”
Shakespeare.
This is, perhaps, an unpardonable falsehood, since it is well known that Charles was so great an enemy to finery as even to object to the appearance of the Duke of Marlborough on that account. Let those readers, therefore, whose critical nicety this passage offends, substitute the following stanza, which is “the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”:
And brows that were crown'd with bays,
With large blue coat, and with black jack-boot,
The theme of his constant praise.
Nothing indeed could exceed Charles's affection for his boots: he eat, drank, and slept in them: nay, he never went on a bootless errand. When the dethroned monarch Augustus waited upon him with proposals of peace, Charles entertained him with a long dissertation on his unparalleled aforesaid jack-boots: he even went so far as to threaten (according to Voltaire), in an authoritative epistle to the senate at Stockholm, that unless they proved less refractory, he would send them one of his boots as regent! Now this, we must allow, was a step beyond Caligula's consul.
Poems by Two Brothers | ||