Part 20 (2/2)

IX.

Who gave your fathers, and your fathers' sons The rights ye claim, amid the roar of guns, And 'mid the flash thereof from sea to sea?

Your country! through her lov'd, her chosen ones.

X.

Oh, ye are dastards if ye lift a hand, Dastards and fools, if, loveless in a band, Ye touch in wrath the bulwark of the realm.

Ye shall be baulk'd, and Chivalry shall stand.

XI.

I have a sword, I also, and I swear By my heart's faith, and by my Lady's hair, That I will strike the first of ye that moves, If by a sign ye wrong the flag ye bear.

XII.

In Freedom's name, in her's to whom we bow, In her great name, I charge ye, palter now With no traducer of your country's cause.

Accurst of G.o.d is he who breaks his vow!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

ZULALIE.

I.

I am the sprite That reigns at night, My body is fair for man's delight.

I leap and laugh As the wine I quaff, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.

II.

I curse and swear In my demon-lair; I shake wild sunbeams out of my hair.

I madden the old, I gladden the bold, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.

III.

Of churchyard stone I have made my throne; My locks are looped with a dead man's bone.

Mine eyes are red With the tears I shed, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.

<script>