Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/702

 684 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

GOW'S WATCH

ACT II. SCENE 2. The pavilion in the Gardens. Enter FERDINAND and the KING

FERDINAND. Your tiercel's too long at hack, Sir. He's

no eyass

But a passage-hawk that footed ere we caught him, Dangerously free o' the air. 'Faith were he mine (As mine's the glove he binds to for his tirings) I'd fly him with a make-hawk. He's in yarak Plumed to the very point. So manned so weathered! Give him the firmament God made him for And what shall take the air of him ?

THE KING. A young wing yet

Bold overbold on the perch but, think you, Ferdinand, He can endure the raw skies yonder? Cozen Advantage out of the teeth of the hurricane? Choose his own mate against the lammer-geier? Ride out a night-long tempest, hold his pitch Between the lightning and the cloud it leaps from, Never too pressed to kill?

FERDINAND. I'll answer for him. Bating all parable, I know the Prince. There's a bleak devil in the young, my Lord; God put it there to save 'em from their elders And break their father's heart, but bear them scatheless Through mire and thorns and blood if need be. Think What our prime saw! Such glory, such achievements As now our children, wondering at, examine Themselves to see if they shall hardly equal. But what cared we while we wrought the wonders ? Nothing ! The rampant deed contented.