Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/290

THE BLAMELESS PRINCE No woman's head so keen to work its will

But that the woman's heart is mistress still.

Three years she ruled a nation well content

To have a maiden queen; then came a day

When those on whom her councils chiefly leant

Began to speak of marriage, and to pray

Their sovereign not to hold herself alone,

Nor trust the tenure of an heirless throne;—

And then the people took the cry, nor lack

Was there of courtly suitors far or near,—

Kings, dukes, crown-princes,—swift upon the track,

Like huntsmen closing round a royal deer.

These she regarded not, but still, among

Her maids and missals, to her freedom clung.

And with the rest there came a puissant king,

Whose country pressed against her own domain,—

In strength its equal, but continuing

Its dearest foe through many a martial reign.

He sued to join his hand and realm with hers,

And end these wars; then all her ministers

Pleaded his suit; but, asking yet for grace,

And that her hand might wait upon her heart,

She halted, till the proud king turned his face

Homeward; and still the people, for their part,

Waited her choice, nor grudged her sex's share

Of coyness to a queen so young and fair.

There was a little State that nestled close

Beside her boundaries, as wont to claim,

Though free, protection there from outer foes,

A Principality—at least in name—

Whose ruler was her father's life-long friend

And firm ally, a statesman skilled to lend

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