官术网_书友最值得收藏!

第19章

  • Lost Face
  • Jack London
  • 591字
  • 2016-03-09 11:57:47

You know your son: have tasted of his temper;At his first onset threatening unprovoked The crime predicted for his last and worst.

How whetted now with such a taste of blood, And thus far conquest!

KING.

Ay, and how he fought!

Oh how he fought, Astolfo; ranks of men Falling as swathes of grass before the mower;I could but pause to gaze at him, although, Like the pale horseman of the Apocalypse, Each moment brought him nearer--Yet I say, I could but pause and gaze on him, and pray Poland had such a warrior for her king.

AST.

The cry of triumph on the other side Gains ground upon us here--there's but a moment For you, my liege, to do, for me to speak, Who back must to the field, and what man may Do, to retrieve the fortune of the day.

(Firing.)

FIFE (falling forward, shot).

Oh, Lord, have mercy on me.

KING.

What a shriek--

Oh, some poor creature wounded in a cause Perhaps not worth the loss of one poor life!--So young too--and no soldier--

FIFE.

A poor lad, Who choosing play at hide and seek with death, Just hid where death just came to look for him;For there's no place, I think, can keep him out, Once he's his eye upon you.All grows dark--You glitter finely too--Well--we are dreaming But when the bullet's off--Heaven save the mark!

So tell my mister--mastress--

(Dies.)

KING.

Oh God! How this poor creature's ignorance Confounds our so-call'd wisdom! Even now When death has stopt his lips, the wound through which His soul went out, still with its bloody tongue Preaching how vain our struggle against fate!

(Voices within).

After them! After them! This way! This way!

The day is ours--Down with Basilio, etc.

AST.

Fly, sir--

KING.

And slave-like flying not out-ride The fate which better like a King abide!

(Enter Segismund, Rosaura, Soldiers, etc.)SEG.

Where is the King?

KING (prostrating himself).

Behold him,--by this late Anticipation of resistless fate, Thus underneath your feet his golden crown, And the white head that wears it, laying down, His fond resistance hope to expiate.

SEG.

Princes and warriors of Poland--you That stare on this unnatural sight aghast, Listen to one who, Heaven-inspired to do What in its secret wisdom Heaven forecast, By that same Heaven instructed prophet-wise To justify the present in the past.

What in the sapphire volume of the skies Is writ by God's own finger misleads none, But him whose vain and misinstructed eyes, They mock with misinterpretation, Or who, mistaking what he rightly read, Ill commentary makes, or misapplies Thinking to shirk or thwart it.Which has done The wisdom of this venerable head;Who, well provided with the secret key To that gold alphabet, himself made me, Himself, I say, the savage he fore-read Fate somehow should be charged with; nipp'd the growth Of better nature in constraint and sloth, That only bring to bear the seed of wrong And turn'd the stream to fury whose out-burst Had kept his lawful channel uncoerced, And fertilized the land he flow'd along.

Then like to some unskilful duellist, Who having over-reached himself pushing too hard His foe, or but a moment off his guard--What odds, when Fate is one's antagonist!--Nay, more, this royal father, self-dismay'd At having Fate against himself array'd, Upon himself the very sword he knew Should wound him, down upon his bosom drew, That might well handled, well have wrought; or, kept Undrawn, have harmless in the scabbard slept.

主站蜘蛛池模板: 宁海县| 盐源县| 老河口市| 壤塘县| 大渡口区| 安龙县| 轮台县| 南木林县| 聂拉木县| 武隆县| 台前县| 东阳市| 牙克石市| 岳普湖县| 尉犁县| 仁化县| 横峰县| 渭南市| 隆安县| 安达市| 司法| 天全县| 石阡县| 通城县| 大石桥市| 桐梓县| 栾城县| 富阳市| 合作市| 诸城市| 沅陵县| 新闻| 防城港市| 新绛县| 永和县| 辽源市| 平原县| 那坡县| 金昌市| 固原市| 南投市|