ah, the brute he was!

Like an outspread map of country plodded through, each mile and rood, Once, and well remembered still, - I'm startled in my solitude

Ever and anon by

what's the sudden mocking light that breaks

On me as I slap the table till no rummerglass but shakes

1

While I ask-aloud, I do believe, God help me!" Was it thus?

Can it be that so I faltered, stopped when just one step for us

(Us, you were not born, I grant, but surely some day born would be)

One bold step had gained a province " (figurative talk, you see)

20

"Got no end of wealth and honor, - yet I stood stock-still no less?"

--

"For I was not Clive," you comment: but it needs no Clive to guess

Wealth were handy, honor ticklish, did no writing on the wall

Warn me "Trespasser, 'ware man-traps!" Him who braves that notice call Hero! none of such heroics suit myself who read plain words,

Doff my hat, and leap no barrier. Scripture says, the land 's the Lord's: Louts then- what avail the thousand, noisy in a smock-frocked ring,

All-agog to have me trespass, clear the fence, be Clive their king? Higher warrant must you show me ere I set one foot before

T'other in that dark direction, though I stand forevermore

30

Poor as Job and meek as Moses. Evermore? No! By and by

Job grows rich and Moses valiant, Clive turns out less wise than I.

Don't object" Why call him friend, then ?" Power is power, my boy, and still God's gift magnific, exer

Marks a man,

cised for good or ill.

You've your boot now on my hearth-rug, tread what was a tiger's skin:

Rarely such a royal monster as I lodged

the bullet in!

True, he murdered half a village, so his own death came to pass;

He sustained a siege in Arcot ... But the world knows! Pass the wine.

Where did I break off at? How bring Clive in? Oh, you mentioned "fear"! Just so: and, said I, that minds me of a story you shall hear.

We were friends then, Clive and I: so, when the clouds, about the orb

Late supreme, encroaching slowly, surely, threaten to absorb

Ray by ray its noontide brilliance, -friendship might, with steadier eye Drawing near, bear what had burned else, now no blaze-all majesty. Too much bee's-wing floats my figure? Well, suppose a castle's new: None presume to climb its ramparts, none find foothold sure for shoe "Twixt those squares and squares of granite plating the impervious pile

As his scale-mail's warty iron cuirasses a crocodile.

For if he be dead or living I can tell no more than you.

All I know is Cocky had one chance more; how he used it,- grew

Out of such unlucky habits, or relapsed, and back again

190

Brought the late-ejected devil with a score more in his train, That's for you to judge. Reprieval I procured, at any rate.

Ugh the memory of that minute's fear makes gooseflesh rise! Why prate Longer? You've my story, there's your instance: fear I did, you see!”

“Well” — I hardly kept from laughing — "if I see it, thanks must be Wholly to your Lordship's candor. Not that-in a common case

When a bully caught at cheating thrusts a pistol in one's face,

I should under-rate, believe me, such a trial to the nerve!

"Tis no joke, at one-and-twenty, for a youth to stand nor swerve.

Fear I naturally look for-unless, of all men alive,

I am forced to make exception when I come to Robert Clive.

200

EPILOGUE

con

240

In regard to the third verse of this poem the Pall Mall Gazette of February 1, 1890, related this incident: One evening, just before his death-illness, the poet was reading this from a proof to his daughter-in-law and sister. He said: It almost looks like bragging to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it; but it's the simple truth; and as it 's true, it shall stand.""

AT the midnight in the silence of the sleeptime,

When you set your fancies free, Will they pass to where by death, fools think, imprisoned

Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so,