Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/198

14 But ere the rush of the unseen feet

Had reached the turn to the open street,

The bars shot down, the guard-drum beat—

We held the dove-cot still.

A face looked down in the gathering day,

And laughing spoke from the wall:

"Ohé, they mourn here: let me by—

"Azizun, the Lucknow nautch-girl, I?

"When the house is rotten, the rats must fly,

"And I seek another thrall.

"For I ruled the King as ne'er did Queen,—

"To-night the Queens rule me!

"Guard them safely, but let me go,

"Or ever they pay the debt they owe

"In scourge and torture!" She leaped below,

And the grim guard watched her flee.

They knew that the King had spent his soul

On a North-bred dancing girl:

That he prayed to a flat-nosed Lucknow god,

And kissed the ground where her feet had trod,

And doomed to death at her drunken nod

And swore by her lightest curl.