“Carriage and horse, give haste, take gold!”—said I.
While they made ready in the doubtful morn,— (1430)
’Twas the last minute,—needs must I ascend
And break her sleep; I turned to go.
Faced me Count Guido, there posed the mean man
As master,—took the field, encamped his rights,
Challenged the world: there leered new triumph, there
Scowled the old malice in the visage bad
And black o’ the scamp. Soon triumph suppled the tongue
A little, malice glued to his dry throat,
And he part howled, part hissed … oh, how he kept
Well out o’ the way, at arm’s length and to spare!— (1441)
“My salutation to your priestship! What?
“Matutinal, busy with book so soon
“Of an April day that’s damp as tears that now
“Deluge Arezzo at its darling’s flight?—
“’Tis unfair, wrongs feminity at large,
“To let a single dame monopolize
“A heart the whole sex claims, should share alike:
“Therefore I overtake you, Canon! Come!
“The lady,—could you leave her side so soon? (1450)
“You have not yet experienced at her hands
“My treatment, you lay down undrugged, I see!
“Hence this alertness—hence no death-in-life
“Like what held arms fast when she stole from mine.
“To be sure, you took the solace and repose
“That first night at Foligno!—news abound
“O’ the road by this time,—men regaled me much,
“As past them I came halting after you,
“Vulcan pursuing Mars, as poets sing,—
“Still at the last here pant I, but arrive, (1460)
“Vulcan—and not without my Cyclops too,
“The Commissary and the unpoisoned arm
“O’ the Civil Force, should Mars turn mutineer.
“Enough of fooling: capture the culprits, friend!
“Here is the lover in the smart disguise
“With the sword,—he is a priest, so mine lies still:
“There upstairs hides my wife the runaway,
“His leman: the two plotted, poisoned first,
“Plundered me after, and eloped thus far
“Where now you find them. Do your duty quick! (1470)
“Arrest and hold him! That’s done: now catch her!”
During this speech of that man,—well, I stood
Away, as he managed,—still, I stood as near
The throat of him,—with these two hands, my own,—
As now I stand near yours, Sir,—one quick spring,
One great good satisfying gripe, and lo!
There had he lain abolished with his lie,
Creation purged o’ the miscreate, man redeemed,
A spittle wiped off from the face of God!
I, in some measure, seek a poor excuse (1480)
For what I left undone, in just this fact
That my first feeling at the speech I quote
Was—not of what a blasphemy was dared,
Not what a bag of venomed purulence
Was split and noisome,—but how splendidly
Mirthful, what ludicrous a lie was launched!
Would Molière’s self wish more than hear such man
Call, claim such woman for his own, his wife,
Even though, in due amazement at the boast,
He had stammered, she moreover was divine? (1490)
She to be his,—were hardly less absurd
Than that he took her name into his mouth,
Licked, and then let it go again, the beast,
Signed with his slaver. Oh, she poisoned him,
Plundered him, and the rest! Well, what I wished
Was, that he would but go on, say once more
So to the world, and get his meed of men,
The fist’s reply to the filth. And while I mused,
The minute, oh the misery, was gone!
On either idle hand of me there stood (1500)
Really an officer, nor laughed i’ the least.
They rendered justice to his reason, laid
Logic to heart, as ’twere submitted them
“Twice two makes four.”
That sobered me. “Let myself lead the way—
“Ere you arrest me, who am somebody,
“And, as you hear, a priest and privileged,—
“To the lady’s chamber! I presume you—men
“Expert, instructed how to find out truth, (1510)
“Familiar with the guise of guilt. Detect
“Guilt on her face when it meets mine, then judge
“Between us and the mad dog howling there!”
Up we all went together, in they broke
O’ the chamber late my chapel. There she lay,
Composed as when I laid her, that last eve,
O’ the couch, still breathless, motionless, sleep’s self,
Wax-white, seraphic, saturate with the sun
O’ the morning that now flooded from the front
And filled the window with a light like blood. (1520)
“Behold the poisoner, the adulteress,
“—And feigning sleep too! Seize, bind!”—Guido hissed.
With the husband: back he fell, was buttressed there
By the window all a-flame with morning-red,
He the black figure, the opprobrious blur
Against all peace and joy and light and life.
“Away from between me and hell!”—she cried:
“Hell for me, no embracing any more!
“I am God’s, I love God, God—whose knees I clasp, (1530)
“Whose utterly most just award I take,
“But bear no more love-making devils: hence!”
I may have made an effort to reach her side
From where I stood i’ the door- way,—anyhow
I found the arms, I wanted, pinioned fast,
Was powerless in the clutch to left and right
O’ the rabble pouring in, rascality
Enlisted, rampant on the side of hearth,
Home, and the husband,—pay in prospect too!
They heaped themselves upon me.—“Ha!—and him (1540)
“Also you outrage? Him, too, my sole friend,
“Guardian, and saviour? That I baulk you of,
“Since—see how God can help at last and worst!”
She sprung at the sword that hung beside him, seized,
Drew, brandished it, the sunrise burned
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