Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/299

THE BLAMELESS PRINCE Unmissed, and parted thus, nor met anew;

For on the morrow, when the Prince took horse,

The lady feigned an illness, or 't was true,—

Yet maybe from her oriel marked his course,

Watching his plume, that into distance past,

Like some dear sail which sinks from sight at last.

He rode beneath their arch, where pennons flared

And standards with his colors blazoned in.

Then thousands shouted welcome; trumpets blared;

He felt the glories of his life begin!

Far, far behind, that eddy in its stream

Now seemed; its vanished shores, in turn, a dream.

Enough; he passed the ways and reached the Queen.

With pomp and pageantry the vows were said.

Leave to the chroniclers the storied scene,

The church, the court, the masks and jousts that sped;

Not theirs, but ours, to follow Love apart,

Where first the bridegroom held his bride to heart,

And saw her purity and regnant worth

Thus kept for him and yielded to his care.

What marvel that of all who dwelt on earth

He seemed most fortunate and she most fair

That self-same hour? And "By God's grace," he thought,

And shape my future conduct in this land

By her deserving, that the world's great voice

Proclaim me not unworthy! Let my hand

Henceforward make her tasks its own; my life

Be merged in this fair ruler, precious wife,

Who reads his own heart will not think it strange 269