And it was liberty to stride

Along my cell from side to side,

And up and down and then athwart,
And tread it over every part;
And round the pillars one by one,
Returning where my walk begun,
Avoiding only, as I trod,

My brothers' graves without a sod;
For if I thought with heedless tread

My step profaned their lowly bed,
My breath came gaspingly and thick,

And my crush'd heart fell blind and sick.

XII

I made a footing in the wall,

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315

I saw them

XIII

and they were the same,

They were not changed like me in frame;
I saw their thousand years of snow

On high their wide long lake below,
And the blue Rhone in fullest flow;

335

And on it there were young flowers growing,
Of gentle breath and hue.

350

It might be months, or years, or days,
I kept no count - I took no note,

I had no hope my eyes to raise,
And clear them of their dreary mote;

At last men came to set me free,

370

I ask'd not why, and reck'd not where;

Had power to kill - yet, strange to tell!
In quiet we had learn'd to dwell

My very chains and I grew friends,

So much a long communion tends
To make us what we are;

390

even I

Regain'd my freedom with a sigh.

MAZEPPA: THE RIDE

IX

""BRING forth the horse!' The horse was brought:

In truth he was a noble steed,

A Tartar of the Ukraine breed,

Who look'd as though the speed of thought

Were in his limbs; but he was wild,
Wild as the wild deer, and untaught,
With spur and bridle undefiled -

'Twas but a day he had been caught;
And snorting, with erected mane,
And struggling fiercely, but in vain,
In the full foam of wrath and dread
To me the desert-born was led;

They bound me on, that menial throng,
Upon his back with many a thong;

Then loosed him with a sudden lash
Away! — away! and on we dash!
Torrents less rapid and less rash.

"Away!

X

away! my breath was gone

I saw not where he hurried on:
'Twas scarcely yet the break of day,
And on he foam'd away! — away!
The last of human sounds which rose,
As I was darted from my foes,
Was the wild shout of savage laughter,
Which on the wind came roaring after
A moment from that rabble rout:

5

IO

15

20

25

With sudden wrath I wrench'd my head,
And snapp'd the cord which to the mane
Had bound my neck in lieu of rein,

And writhing half my form about,

30

Howl'd back my curse; but 'midst the tread,

Stone, bar, moat, bridge, or barrier left;
Nor of its fields a blade of grass,

40

Save what grows on a ridge of wall,

Where stood the hearthstone of the hall;

And many a time ye there might pass,

Nor dream that e'er that fortress was:
I saw its turrets in a blaze,
Their crackling battlements all cleft,

And the hot lead pour down like rain
From off the scorch'd and blackening roof,
Whose thickness was not vengeance-proof.
They little thought that day of pain,
When launch'd, as on the lightning's flash,
They bade me to destruction dash,

45

50

That one day I should come again,

With twice five thousand horse, to thank
The Count for his uncourteous ride.

55

They play'd me then a bitter prank,

When, with the wild horse for my guide,
They bound me to his foaming flank;
At length I play'd them one as frank
For time at last sets all things even

And if we do but watch the hour,
There never yet was human power

60