Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/288

THE BLAMELESS PRINCE Yes, nor looking far around,

But to-day I sought and found

These who lived in that old time.

Why should we again be told

Dross will mingle with all gold?

That which time nor test can stain

Was not smelted quite in vain.

What of Albert's blameless heart,

Arthur's old heroic part,

Saxon Alfred's glorious reign?

Yes, my Prince was such as they,

Part of gold, and part of clay,

Though his metal shone as bright,

And his dross was hid from sight.

He who brightest is, and best

Still may fear the secret test

That shall try his heart aright.

Let me, then, of what befell

Hearts that loved, my story tell.

Turn the leaf that lies between

You who listen and the scene!

Your pity for the Lady, since

She died of sorrow; spare my Prince;

Love to the last my gentle Queen!

THE BLAMELESS PRINCE

since, there was a Princess of the blood,

Sole heiress to the crown her father wore,—

Plucked from a dying stem, that one fair bud

Put forth, and withered ere it others bore; 258