Home they brought her warrior dead : All her maidens, watching, said, 'She must weep or she will die.' Then they praised him, soft and low, Truest friend and noblest foe; Yet she neither spoke nor moved. Stole a maiden from her place, Took the face-cloth from the face; Yet she neither moved nor wept. Rose a nurse of ninety years, Set his child upon her kneeLike summer tempest came her tears— 'Sweet my child, I live for thee.' VI. WHAT follow'd, tho' I saw not, yet I heard For when our side was vanquished and my cause For ever lost, there went up a great cry The Prince is slain. My father heard and ran In on the lists, and there unlaced my casque And grovell'd on my body, and after him But high upon the palace Ida stood 'Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: the seed The little seed they laugh'd at in the dark, Of spanless girth, that lays on every side A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun. Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they came; The leaves were wet with women's tears: they heard A noise of songs they would not understand: They mark'd it with the red cross to the fall, And would have strown it, and are fall'n themselves. Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they came, The woodmen with their axes: lo the tree ! But we will make it faggots for the hearth, And shape it plank and beam for roof and floor, Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they struck; With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knew There dwelt an iron nature in the grain : The glittering axe was broken in their arms, Their arms were shatter'd to the shoulder blade. Our enemies have fall'n, but this shall grow A night of Summer from the heat, a breadth Of Autumn, dropping fruits of power; and roll'd With music in the growing breeze of Time, The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangs Shall move the stony bases of the world. 'And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary Is violate, our laws broken: fear we not To break them more in their behoof, whose arms Their statues, born aloft, the three but come, We will be liberal, since our rights are won. Let them not lie in the tents with coarse mankind, Ill nurses; but descend, and proffer these The brethren of our blood and cause, that there Lie bruised and maim'd, the tender ministries Of female hands and hospitality.' She spoke, and with the babe yet in her arms, Descending, burst the great bronze valves, and led A hundred maids in train across the Park. Some cowl'd, and some bare-headed, on they came, |