The Golden Treasury :: :: University of Virginia Library

Eleven men of England
A breast-work charged in vain;
Eleven men of England
Lie stripp'd, and gash'd, and slain.
Slain; but of foes that guarded
Their rock-built fortress well,
Some twenty had been master'd,
When the last soldier fell.

The robber-chief mused deeply,
Above those daring dead;
‘Bring here,’ at length he shouted,
‘Bring quick, the battle thread.
Let Eblis blast for ever
Their souls, if Allah will:
But We must keep unbroken
The old rules of the Hill.

‘Before the Ghiznee tiger
Leapt forth to burn and slay;
Before the holy Prophet
Taught our grim tribes to pray;

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Before Secunder's lances
Pierced through each Indian glen;
The mountain laws of honour
Were framed for fearless men.

‘Still, when a chief dies bravely,
We bind with green one wrist—
Green for the brave, for heroes
One crimson thread we twist.
Say ye, oh gallant Hillmen,
For these, whose life has fled,
Which is the fitting colour,
The green one, or the red?’

‘Our brethren, laid in honour'd graves, may wear
Their green reward,’ each noble savage said;
‘To these, whom hawks and hungry wolves shall tear,
Who dares deny the red?’

Thus conquering hate, and stedfast to the right,
Fresh from the heart that haughty verdict came;
Beneath a waning moon, each spectral height
Roll'd back its loud acclaim.

Once more the chief gazed keenly
Down on those daring dead;
From his good sword their heart's blood
Crept to that crimson thread.
Once more he cried, ‘The judgment,
Good friends, is wise and true,
But though the red be given,
Have we not more to do?

‘These were not stirr'd by anger,
Nor yet by lust made bold;
Renown they thought above them,
Nor did they look for gold.
To them their leader's signal
Was as the voice of God:
Unmoved, and uncomplaining,
The path it show'd they trod.

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‘As, without sound or struggle,
The stars unhurrying march,
Where Allah's finger guides them,
Through yonder purple arch,
These Franks, sublimely silent,
Without a quicken'd breath,
Went, in the strength of duty,
Straight to their goal of death.

‘If I were now to ask you,
To name our bravest man,
Ye all at once would answer,
They call'd him Mehrab Khan.
He sleeps among his fathers,
Dear to our native land,
With the bright mark he bled for
Firm round his faithful hand.

‘The songs they sing of Roostum
Fill all the past with light;
If truth be in their music,
He was a noble knight.
But were those heroes living,
And strong for battle still,
Would Mehrab Khan or Roostum
Have climb'd, like these, the Hill?’

And they replied, ‘Though Mehrab Khan was brave,
As chief, he chose himself what risks to run;
Prince Roostum lied, his forfeit life to save,
Which these had never done.’

‘Enough!’ he shouted fiercely;
‘Doom'd though they be to hell,
Bind fast the crimson trophy
Round both wrists—bind it well.
Who knows but that great Allah
May grudge such matchless men,
With none so deck'd in heaven,
To the fiends' flaming den?’

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Then all those gallant robbers
Shouted a stern ‘Amen!’
They raised the slaughter'd sergeant,
They raised his mangled ten.
And when we found their bodies
Left bleaching in the wind,
Around BOTH wrists in glory
That crimson thread was twined.

F. H. Doyle