And listening to their speech a little space,
The fugitive brief moments were to him
A pyramid of piled eternities.
For while he hearkened, Ugo said: "My love,
Answer me this one question, which may seem
Idle, yet is not;—how much lov'st thou me?"
And she replied: "I love thee just as much
As I do hate my husband, and no more."
Then he: "But prithee how much hatest thou
Thy husband?" And she answered: "Ev'n as much
As I love thee. To hate him one whit more
Than that, were past the power of Lucia's hate."
And Ugo: "If thou lovest me so much,
Grant me one gift in token of thy love."
Then she: "What would'st thou?" And he answered her:
"Even thyself; no poorer gift will I."
But Lucia said: "Nay, have I not bestowed
My love, which is my soul, my richer self?
My poorer self, which is my body, how
Can I bestow, when 'tis not in mine own
Possession, being his property forsooth,
Who holds the ecclesiastic title-deed?…
Yet—but I know not … if I grant this boon,
Bethink thee, how wilt carry hence the gift?
Quick. For the time is all-too brief to waste."
And Ugo spake with hurrying tongue: "Right so:
To-morrow, therefore, when the sun hath set,
Quit thou the castle, all alone, and haste
To yonder tarn that lies amid the trees
Haply a furlong westward from your house—
The gloomy lakelet fringed with pines—and there
Upon the hither margin thou shalt find
Me, and two with me, mounted all, and armed,
With a fourth steed to bear thee on his back:
And thou shalt fly with me, my Lucia, till
Thou reach my castle in the mountain'd North,
Whose mistress I will make thee, and mine own."
Then Lucia said: "But how if Angelo
Pursue and overtake us?" Whereupon
Ugo replied: "Pursue he may,—o'ertake
He shall not, save he saddle him the wind.
Besides—to grant the impossible—if he
Were to o'ertake us, he could only strive
To win you back with argument; wherein
My servants, at their master's bidding, could
Debate with him on more than equal terms:
Cold steel convinces warmest disputants.
Or, if to see the bosom marital
Impierced, would make your own consorted heart
Bleed sympathetic, some more mild—" But she,
The beauteous Fury, interrupted him
With passionate-pallid lips: "Reproach me not
Beforehand—even in jest reproach me not—
With imputation of such tenderness
For him and his life—when thou knowest how
I hate, hate, hate him,—when thou knowest how
I wish, and wish, and wish, that he were dead."
Then Angelo bethought him of his vow;
And stepping forward stood before the twain;
And from his girdle plucked a dagger forth;
And spake no word, but pierced his own heart through.
THE QUESTIONER
I asked of heaven and earth and sea,
Saying: "O wondrous trinity,
Deign to make answer unto me,
And tell me truly what ye be."
And they made answer: "Verily,
The mask before His face are we,
Because 'tis writ no man can see
His face and live;"—so spake the three.
Then I: "O wondrous trinity,
A mask is but a mockery—
Make answer yet again to me
And tell if aught besides are ye."
And they made answer: "Verily,
The robe around His form are we,
That sick and sore mortality
May touch its hem and healèd be."
Then I: "O wondrous trinity,
Vouchsafe once more to answer me,
And tell me truly, what is He
Whose very mask and raiment ye?"
But they replied: "Of Time are we,
And of Eternity is He.
Wait thou, and ask Eternity;
Belike his mouth shall answer thee."
THE RIVER
I
As drones a bee with sultry hum
When all the world with heat lies dumb,
Thou dronest through the drowsèd lea,
To lose thyself and find the sea.
As fares the soul that threads the gloom
Toward an unseen goal of doom,
Thou farest forth all witlessly,
To lose thyself and find the sea.
II
My soul is such a stream as thou,
Lapsing along it heeds not how;
In one thing only unlike thee,—
Losing itself, it finds no sea.