I

A ROYAL PRINCESS.

A PRINCESS, king-descended, decked with jewels, gilded, drest,

Would rather be a peasant with her baby at her breast, For all I shine so like the sun, and am purple like the

west.

Two and two my guards behind, two and two before, Two and two on either hand, they guard me ever

more;

Me, poor dove, that must not coo, - eagle, that must

not soar.

All my fountains cast up perfumes, all my gardens

grow

Scented woods and foreign spices, with all flowers in

blow

That are costly, out of season as the seasons go.

All my walls are lost in mirrors, whereupon I trace Self to right hand, self to left hand, self in every place, Self-same solitary figure, self-same seeking face.

Then I have an ivory chair high to sit upon,
Almost like my father's chair, which is an ivory throne;
There I sit uplift and upright, there I sit alone.

Alone by day, alone by night, alone days without end; My father and my mother give me treasures, search and spend

O my father! O my mother! have you ne'er a friend?

As I am a lofty princess, so my father is

A lofty king, accomplished in all kingly subtilties, Holding in his strong right hand world-kingdoms' balances.

He has quarrelled with his neighbors, he has scourged his foes;

Vassal counts and princes follow where his pennon

goes,

Long-descended valiant lords whom the vulture knows,

On whose track the vulture swoops, when they ride

in state

To break the strength of armies and topple down

the great:

Each of these my courteous servant, none of these my mate.

My father counting up his strength sets down with

equal pen

So many head of cattle, head of horses, head of

men;

These for slaughter, these for labor, with the how and when.

Some to work on roads, canals; some to man his ships; Some to smart in mines beneath sharp overseers' whips;

Some to trap fur-beasts in lands where utmost winter nips.

Once it came into my heart and whelmed me like a

flood,

That these too are men and women, human flesh and

blood;

Men with hearts and men with souls, though trodden down like mud.

Our feasting was not glad that night, our music was

not gay;

On my mother's graceful head I marked a thread of

gray,

My father frowning at the fare seemed every dish to weigh.

I sat beside them sole princess in my exalted place, My ladies and my gentlemen stood by me on the dais : A mirror showed me I look old and haggard in the face;

It showed me that my ladies all are fair to gaze upon, Plump, plenteous-haired, to every one love's secret lore is known,

They laugh by day, they sleep by night; ah me, what is a throne?

The singing men and women sang that night as usual, The dancers danced in pairs and sets, but music had a fall,

A melancholy windy fall as at a funeral.

Amid the toss of torches to my chamber back we

swept ;

My ladies loosed my golden chain; meantime I could have wept

To think of some in galling chains whether they waked or slept.

I took my bath of scented milk, delicately waited on, They burned sweet things for my delight, cedar and cinnamon,

They lit my shaded silver lamp and left me there alone.

A day went by, a week went by. One day I heard it

said:

"Men are clamoring, women, children, clamoring to

be fed ;

Men like famished dogs are howling in the streets for bread."

So two whispered by my door, not thinking I could hear,

Vulgar, naked truth, ungarnished for a royal ear;

Fit for cooping in the background, not to stalk so

near.

But I strained my utmost sense to catch this truth, and mark :

"There are families out grazing like cattle in the park." "A pair of peasants must be saved even if we build an ark."

A merry jest, a merry laugh, each strolled upon his

way;

One was my page, a lad I reared and bore with day by day;

One was my youngest maid, as sweet and white as cream in May.

Other footsteps followed softly with a weightier tramp ; Voices said: "Picked soldiers have been summoned

from the camp

To quell these base-born ruffians who make free to howl and stamp."

"Howl and stamp?'

66

one answered: They made

free to hurl a stone

At the minister's state coach, well aimed and stoutly thrown."

"There's work, then, for the soldiers, for this rank crop must be mown."

"One I saw, a poor old fool with ashes on his head, Whimpering because a girl had snatched his crust of bread :

Then he dropped; when some one raised him, it turned out he was dead."