SPARREN. Indeed, the horse pitched with his rider down,
But he who rode him, Prince, was not our liege.
THE PRINCE. What? Not our liege?
NATALIE. Oh, wonderful!
[She rises and remains standing beside the ELECTRESS.]
THE PRINCE. Speak then!
Weighty as gold each word sinks to my heart.
SPARREN. Then let me give you tidings of a deed
So moving, ear has never heard its like.
Our country's liege, who, to remonstrance deaf,
Rode his white horse again, the gleaming white
That Froben erstwhile bought for him in England,
Became once more, as ever was the case,
The target for the foe's artillery.
Scarce could the members of his retinue
Within a ring of hundred yards approach
About there and about, a stream of death,
Hurtled grenades and cannon-shot and shell.
They that had lives to save fled to its banks.
He, the strong swimmer, he alone shrank not,
But beckoning his friends, unswervingly
Made toward the high lands whence the river came.
THE PRINCE. By heaven, i' faith! A gruesome sight it was!
SPARREN. Froben, the Master of the Horse who rode
Closest to him of all, called out to me
"Curses this hour on this white stallion's hide,
I bought in London for a stiff round sum!
I'd part with fifty ducats, I'll be bound,
Could I but veil him with a mouse's gray."
With hot misgiving he draws near and cries,
"Highness, your horse is skittish; grant me leave
To give him just an hour of schooling more."
And leaping from his sorrel at the word
He grasps the bridle of our liege's beast.
Our liege dismounts, still smiling, and replies
"As long as day is in the sky, I doubt
If he will learn the art you wish to teach.
But give your lesson out beyond those hills
Where the foe's gunners will not heed his fault."
Thereon he mounts the sorrel, Froben's own,
Returning thence to where his duty calls.
But scarce is Froben mounted on the white
When from a breastwork, oh! a murder-shell
Tears him to earth, tears horse and rider low.
A sacrifice to faithfulness, he falls;
And from him not a sound more did we hear.
[Brief pause.]
THE PRINCE. He is well paid for! Though I had ten lives
I could not lose them in a better cause!