Page:Last Poems.djvu/33



, thou hast found thy kingdom, Yasin Khan, Thy fathers' pomp and power are thine, at last. No more the rugged roads of Khorasan, The scanty food and tentage of the past!

Wouldst thou make war? thy followers know no fear, Where shouldst thou lead them but to victory? Wouldst thou have love? thy soft-eyed slaves draw near, Eager to drain thy strength away from thee.

My thoughts drag backwards to forgotten days, To scenes etched deeply on my heart by pain; The thirsty marches, ambuscades, and frays, The hostile hills, the burnt and barren plain.

Hast thou forgotten how one night was spent, Crouched in a camel's carcase by the road, Along which Akbar's soldiers, scouting, went, And he himself, all unsuspecting, rode?

Did we not waken one despairing dawn, Attacked in front, cut off in rear, by snow, Till, like a tiger leaping on a fawn, Half of the hill crashed down upon the foe?

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