The midnight watch—but ah, the magic bough,

The opiate dew that dript upon his brow,

The vacant post, the friends who waking wept.

The gods demand their victims; who shall know

What failures Time and Circumstance compel?

Yet, if such doom were mine, I would ’twere so

That they would mark my absence thus: “How well

Even unto the last he struggled, lo!

He tore the rudder with him when he fell!”

THE DERELICT