Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/301

THE BLAMELESS PRINCE In the Queen's joy, kept silent those who weighed

The Prince's make, and sought to find alloy

In his fine gold; but, when the freshness fled

From these things told, some took new thought and said:

Upon the Prince! what if he warp her mind

To errant policies, and rule us yet

By proxy?" "What and if he prove the kind

Of trifling gallant," others said, "to slight

Our mistress, for each new and base delight?

And his due station, even from the first,

The peers of haughty rank and lineage long,

Jealous of one whose blossom at a burst

Outflamed their own, begrudged him; till their pique

Grew plain, and sent proud color to his cheek.

So now he fared as some new actor fares,

Who through dark arras gains the open boards,

Facing the lights, and feels a thousand stares

Come full upon him; and the great throng hoards

Its plaudits; and, as he begins his tale,

His rivals wait to mock him if he fail.

But here a brave simplicity of soul

And careless vigilance, by honor bred,

Stayed him, and o'er his actions held control.

A host of generous virtues stood in stead,

To help him on; with patient manliness

He kept his rank, no greater and no less;

His life was as a limpid rivulet;

His thoughts, like golden sands, were through it seen,

Not on himself in poor ambition set,

But on his chosen country and the Queen; 271