Lo! when the service was ended, a form ap peared on the threshold, Clad in armor of steel, a sombre and sorrowful figure! 945 Why does the bridegroom start and stare at the strange apparition? Why does the bride turn pale, and hide her face on his shoulder? Is it a phantom of air, - a bodiless, spectral illu sion? Is it a ghost from the grave, that has come to forbid the betrothal? Long had it stood there unseen, a guest uninvited, unwelcomed; 950 Over its clouded eyes there had passed at times an expression Softening the gloom and revealing the warm heart hidden beneath them, As when across the sky the driving rack of the rain-cloud Grows for a moment thin, and betrays the sun by its brightness. Once it had lifted its hand, and moved its lips, but was silent, 952. Rack, a Shaksperian word, used possibly in two senses, either as vapor, as in the thirty-third sonnet, "Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face," which is plainly the meaning here, or as a light, cirrus cloud, as in the Tempest, Act IV. Scene 1: "And like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind," although here, also, the meaning of vapor might be admissible. Bacon has defined rack: "The winds, which wave the clouds above, which we call the rack, and are not perceived below pass without noise." 955 As if an iron will had mastered the fleeting iuten tion. But when were ended the troth and the prayer and the last benediction, Into the room it strode, and the people beheld with amazement Bodily there in his armor Miles Standish, the Captain of Plymouth! Grasping the bridegroom's hand, he said with emotion, "Forgive me! 960 I have been angry and hurt, cherished the feeling; too long have 1 I have been cruel and hard, but now, thank God! it is ended. Mine is the same hot blood that leaped in the veins of Hugh Standish, Sensitive, swift to resent, but as swift in atoning for error. Never so much as now was Miles Standish the friend of John Alden." 965 Thereupon answered the bridegroom: "Let all be forgotten between us, All save the dear, old friendship, and that shall grow older and dearer!" Then the Captain advanced, and, bowing, saluted Priscilla, Gravely, and after the manner of old-fashioned gentry in England, Something of camp and of court, of town and of country, commingled, 970 Wishing her joy of her wedding, and loudly laud ing her husband. Then he said with a smile: "I should have re If you would be well served, you must serve your self; and moreover, No man can gather cherries in Kent at the season of Christmas!" Great was the people's amazement, and greater yet their rejoicing, 975 Thus to behold once more the sunburnt face of their Captain, Whom they had mourned as dead; and they gath ered and crowded about him, Eager to see him and hear him, forgetful of bride and of bridegroom, Questioning, answering, laughing, and each interrupting the other, Till the good Captain declared, being quite overpowered and bewildered, 980 He had rather by far break into an Indian encamp ment, Than come again to a wedding to which he had not been invited. Meanwhile the bridegroom went forth and stood with the bride at the doorway, Breathing the perfumed air of that warm and beautiful morning. Touched with autumnal tints, but lonely and sad in the sunshine, 985 Lay extended before them the land of toil and privation; There were the graves of the dead, and the barren waste of the sea-shore, There the familiar fields, the groves of pine, and But to their eyes transfigured, it seemed as the Filled with the presence of God, whose voice was 990 Soon was their vision disturbed by the noise and stir of departure, Friends coming forth from the house, and impatient of longer delaying, Each with his plan for the day, and the work that was left uncompleted. Then from a stall near at hand, amid exclama tions of wonder, Alden the thoughtful, the careful, so happy, so proud of Priscilla, 995 Brought out his snow-white bull, obeying the hand of its master, Led by a cord that was tied to an iron ring in its nostrils, Covered with crimson cloth, and a cushion placed for a saddle. She should not walk, he said, through the dust and heat of the noonday; Nay, she should ride like a queen, not plod along like a peasant. 1000 Somewhat alarmed at first, but reassured by the 1005 others, Placing her hand on the cushion, her foot in the hand of her husband, Gayly, with joyous laugh, Priscilla mounted her palfrey. 'Nothing is wanting now," he said with a smile, "but the distaff; Then you would be in truth my queen, my beautiful Bertha!" Onward the bridal procession now moved to their new habitation, Happy husband and wife, and friends conversing together. Pleasantly murmured the brook, as they crossed the ford in the forest, Pleased with the image that passed, like a dream of love through its bosom, Tremulous, floating in air, o'er the depths of the azure abysses. 1010 Down through the golden leaves the sun was pouring his splendors, Gleaming on purple grapes, that, from branches above them suspended, Mingled their odorous breath with the balm of the pine and the fir-tree, Wild and sweet as the clusters that grew in the valley of Eschol. Like a picture it seemed of the primitive, pastoral ages, 1015 Fresh with the youth of the world, and recalling Rebecca and Isaac, Old and yet ever new, and simple and beautiful always, Love immortal and young in the endless succes sion of lovers. So through the Plymouth woods passed onward the bridal procession. Miles Standish was not inconsolable. In the Fortune came a certain Barbara, whose last name is unknown, whom Standish married. He had six children, and many of his descendants are living. |