Robert Browning

“ Clive it was gave England India, while your father gives—egad,
England nothing but the graceless boy who lures him on to speak—
“Well, Sir, you and Clive were comrades—” with a tongue thrust in your cheek!
Very true: in my eyes, your eyes, all the world’s eyes, Clive was man,
I was, am, and ever shall be—mouse, nay, mouse of all its clan
Sorriest sample, if you take the kitchen’s estimate for fame;
While the man Clive—he fought Plassy, spoiled the clever foreign game,
Conquered and annexed and Englished! ”

“ Wholly to your Lordship’s candour. Not that—in a common case—
When a bully caught at cheating thrusts a pistol in one’s face,
I should under-rate, believe me, such a trial to the nerve!
’Tis no joke, at one-and-twenty, for a youth to stand nor swerve.
Fear I naturally look for—unless, of all men alive,
I am forced to make exception when I come to Robert Clive.
Since at Arcot, Plassy, elsewhere, he and death—the whole world knows—
Came to somewhat closer quarters. ”

“ Beg for his sake the Pearl! Be God the rewarder, since
[Pg 62] God pays debts seven for one: who squanders on Him shows thrift.’”
Said Hóseyn, “God gives each man one life, like a lamp, then gives
That lamp due measure of oil: lamp lighted—hold high, wave wide
Its comfort for others to share! once quench it, what help is left?
The oil of your lamp is your son: I shine while Muléykeh lives.
Would I beg your son to cheer my dark if Muléykeh died?
It is life against life: what good avails to the life-bereft?”
Another year, and—hist! What craft is it Duhl designs? ”

“ Buhéyseh, her sister born: fleet is she yet ever missed
The winning tail’s fire-flash a-stream past the thunderous heels.
“No less she stands saddled and bridled, this second, in case some thief
Should enter and seize and fly with the first, as I mean to do.
What then? The Pearl is the Pearl: once mount her we both escape.”
Through the skirt-fold in glides Duhl,—so a serpent disturbs no leaf
In a bush as he parts the twigs entwining a nest: clean through,
He is noiselessly at his work: as he planned, he performs the rape. ”

“ Till I filch his Pearl away. Fair dealing I tried, then guile,
And now I resort to force. He said we must live or die:
Let him die, then,—let me live! Be bold—but not too rash!
I have found me a peeping-place: breast, bury your breathing while
I explore for myself! Now, breathe! He deceived me not, the spy!
“As he said—there lies in peace Hóseyn—how happy! Beside
[Pg 64] Stands tethered the Pearl: thrice winds her headstall about his wrist:
’Tis therefore he sleeps so sound—the moon through the roof reveals. ”

“ His way to the nest, and how Duhl rode like an ape, so bad!
[Pg 67] And how Buhéyseh did wonders, yet Pearl remained with the thief.
And they jeered him, one and all: “Poor Hóseyn is crazed past hope!
How else had he wrought himself his ruin, in fortune’s spite?
To have simply held the tongue were a task for boy or girl,
And here were Muléykeh again, the eyed like an antelope,
The child of his heart by day, the wife of his breast by night!”—
“And the beaten in speed!” wept Hóseyn. “You never have loved my Pearl.”
[Pg 68]
TRAY.
Sing me a hero! ”

“ Lo, Duhl the son of Sheybán comes riding to Hóseyn’s tent,
And he casts his saddle down, and enters and “Peace!” bids he.
“You are poor, I know the cause: my plenty shall mend the wrong.
[Pg 61] ’Tis said of your Pearl—the price of a hundred camels spent
In her purchase were scarce ill paid: such prudence is far from me
Who proffer a thousand. Speak! Long parley may last too long.”
Said Hóseyn, “You feed young beasts a many, of famous breed,
Slit-eared, unblemished, fat, true offspring of Múzennem:
There stumbles no weak-eyed she in the line as it climbs the hill. ”

“ They went when his tribe was mulct, ten thousand camels the due,
Blood-value paid perforce for a murder done of old.
‘God gave them, let them go! But never since time began,
Muléykeh, peerless mare, owned master the match of you,
And you are my prize, my Pearl: I laugh at men’s land and gold!’
[Pg 60]
“So in the pride of his soul laughs Hóseyn—and right, I say. ”

“ Such a castle seldom crumbles by sheer stress of cannonade:
[Pg 45] ’Tis when foes are foiled, and fighting’s finished that vile rains invade,
Grass o’ergrows, o’ergrows till night-birds congregating find no holes
Fit to build like the topmost sockets made for banner-poles.
So Clive crumbled slow in London, crashed at last. ”

“ Ticket up in one’s museum, Mind-Freaks, Lord Clive’s Fear, Unique!”
Down his brows dropped. On the table painfully he pored as though
Tracing, in the stains and streaks there, thoughts encrusted long ago.
When he spoke ’twas like a lawyer reading word by word some will,
Some blind jungle of a statement,—beating on and on until
Out there leaps fierce life to fight with.
“This fell in my factor-days.
Desk-drudge, slaving at Saint David’s, one must game, or drink, or craze. ”

“ But I love Muléykeh’s face: her forefront whitens indeed
Like a yellowish wave’s cream-crest. Your camels—go gaze on them!
Her fetlock is foam-splashed too. Myself am the richer still.”
A year goes by: lo, back to the tent again rides Duhl. ”

“ All-agog to have me trespass, clear the fence, be Clive their king?
Higher warrant must you show me ere I set one foot before
T’other in that dark direction, though I stand for evermore
Poor as Job and meek as Moses. Evermore? No! By and by
Job grows rich and Moses valiant, Clive turns out less wise than I.
Don’t object “Why call him friend, then?” ”

“ Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron!” cried its chief.
Captains, give the sailor place!
He is Admiral, in brief.
[Pg 28] Still the north wind, by God’s grace!
See the noble fellow’s face
As the big ship, with a bound,
Clears the entry like a hound,
Keeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide sea’s profound!
See, safe through shoal and rock,
How they follow in a flock,
Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the ground,
Not a spar that comes to grief! ”

“ Why, had mine been such a trial, fear had overcome disgrace.
True, disgrace were hard to bear: but such a rush against God’s face
—None of that for me, Lord Plassy, since I go to church at times,
Say the creed my mother taught me! Many years in foreign climes
Rub some marks away—not all, though! We poor sinners reach life’s brink,
Overlook what rolls beneath it, recklessly enough, but think
There’s advantage in what’s left us—ground to stand on, time to call
[Pg 58] ‘Lord, have mercy!’ ere we topple over—do not leap, that’s all! ”

“ She is near now, nose by tail—they are neck by croup—joy! fear!
[Pg 66] What folly makes Hóseyn shout “Dog Duhl, Damned son of the Dust,
Touch the right ear and press with your foot my Pearl’s left flank!”
And Duhl was wise at the word, and Muléykeh as prompt perceived
Who was urging redoubled pace, and to hear him was to obey,
And a leap indeed gave she, and evanished for evermore.
And Hóseyn looked one long last look as who, all bereaved,
Looks, fain to follow the dead so far as the living may:
Then he turned Buhéyseh’s neck slow homeward, weeping sore. ”

“ Something like “Yes—courage; only fools will call it fear.”
If aught
Comfort you, my great unhappy hero Clive, in that I heard,
Next week, how your own hand dealt you doom, and uttered just the word
“Fearfully courageous!”—this, be sure, and nothing else I groaned.
I’m no Clive, nor parson either: Clive’s worst deed—we’ll hope condoned.
[Pg 59]
MULÉYKEH.
If a stranger passed the tent of Hóseyn, he cried “A churl’s!”
Or haply “God help the man who has neither salt nor bread!” ”

“ I chose gaming: and,—because your high-flown gamesters hardly take
Umbrage at a factor’s elbow, if the factor pays his stake,—
I was winked at in a circle where the company was choice,
Captain This and Major That, men high of colour, loud of voice,
[Pg 48] Yet indulgent, condescending to the modest juvenile
Who not merely risked, but lost his hard-earned guineas with a smile. ”

“ And calmed about her neck—ay, down
To her breast, pressed flat, without a gap
I’ the gold, it reached her gown.
[Pg 77]
All kissed that face, like a silver wedge
’Mid the yellow wealth, nor disturbed its hair:
E’en the priest allowed death’s privilege,
As he planted the crucifix with care
On her breast, ’twixt edge and edge.
And thus was she buried, inviolate
Of body and soul, in the very space
By the altar; keeping saintly state
In Pornic church, for her pride of race,
Pure life and piteous fate. ”

“ Can it be that so I faltered, stopped when just one step for us—”
(Us,—you were not born, I grant, but surely some day born would be)
“—One bold step had gained a province” (figurative talk, you see)
“Got no end of wealth and honour,—yet I stood stock-still no less?”
—“For I was not Clive,” you comment: but it needs no Clive to guess
Wealth were handy, honour ticklish, did no writing on the wall
Warn me “Trespasser, ’ware man-traps!” Him who braves that notice—call
Hero! None of such heroics suit myself who read plain words,
Doff my hat, and leap no barrier. ”

“ But where’s the need of wasting time now? Naught requires delay:
Punishment the Service cries for: let disgrace be wiped away
Publicly, in good broad daylight! Resignation? No, indeed!
Drum and fife must play the Rogue’s-March, rank and file be free to speed
Tardy marching on the rogue’s part by appliance in the rear
—Kicks administered shall right this wronged civilian,—never fear,
[Pg 53] Mister Clive, for—though a clerk—you bore yourself—suppose we say—
Just as would beseem a soldier?
“‘Gentlemen, attention—pray!
First, one word!’
“I passed each speaker severally in review. ”

“ Call him Cock o’ the Walk, my scarlet son of Mars from head to heel!
Play commenced: and, whether Cocky fancied that a clerk must feel
Quite sufficient honour came of bending over one green baize,
I the scribe with him the warrior, guessed no penman dared to raise
Shadow of objection should the honour stay but playing end
More or less abruptly,—whether disinclined he grew to spend
Practice strictly scientific on a booby born to stare
At—not ask of—lace-and-ruffles if the hand they hide plays fair,—
Anyhow, I marked a movement when he bade me ‘Cut!’
“I rose. ”

“ Never mind! As o’er my punch
(You away) I sit of evenings,—silence, save for biscuit crunch,
Black, unbroken,—thought grows busy, thrids each pathway of old years,
Notes this forthright, that meander, till the long past life appears
[Pg 42] Like an outspread map of country plodded through, each mile and rood,
Once, and well remembered still,—I’m startled in my solitude
Ever and anon by—what’s the sudden mocking light that breaks
On me as I slap the table till no rummer-glass but shakes
While I ask—aloud, I do believe, God help me!—“Was it thus? ”

“ Of the Piper perked in the market-place,
With a, “First, if you please, my thousand guilders!”
IX
A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue;
So did the Corporation, too.
For council dinners made rare havoc
With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock;
And half the money would replenish
Their cellar’s biggest butt with Rhenish.
To pay this sum to a wandering fellow
With a gypsy coat of red and yellow!
[Pg 18] “Beside,” quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink,
“Our business was done at the river’s brink;
We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,
And what’s dead can’t come to life, I think. ”

“ Clive and I, you had not wondered—up he sprang so, out he rapped
Such a round of oaths—no matter! I’ll endeavour to adapt
To our modern usage words he—well, ’twas friendly license—flung
[Pg 56] At me like so many fire-balls, fast as he could wag his tongue.
“You—a soldier? You—at Plassy? ”