The Hostage

THEY seize in the Tyrant of Syracuse' halls

A youth with a dagger in's vest:

He is bound by the Tyrant's behest:
The Tyrant beholds him — Rage blanches his cheek:
"Why hiddest yon dagger, conspirator? Speak!" —

"To pierce to the heart such as thou!" —

"Wretch! Death on the cross is thy doom even
now!" —

"It is well," spake the youth; u I am harnessed for death;

And I sue not thy sternness to spare;

Yet would I be granted one prayer: —
Three days would I ask, till my sister be wed;
As a hostage, I leave thee my friend in my stead;

If /In-found false to my truth,

Nail him to thy cross without respite or ruth!"

Then smiled with a dark exultation the King,

And he spake, after brief meditation —

UI grant thee three days' preparation;
But see thou outstay not the term I allow,
Else, by the high thrones of Olympus I vow,

That if thou shalt go scathless and free,

The best blood of thv friend shall be forfeit for thee I"

And Pythias repairs to his friend — u I am doomed

To atone for my daring emprize,

By Death in its shamefullest guise;
But the Monarch three days ere I perish allows,
Till I give a loved sister away to her spouse;

Thou, therefore, my hostage must be,

Till I come the third day, and again set thee free."

And Damon in silence embraces his friend,
And he gives himself up to the Despot;
While Pythias makes use of his respite,
And ere the third morning in Orient is burning
Behold the Devoted already returning
To save his friend ere it be later,
By dying himself the vile death of a traitor!

But the rain, the wild rain, dashes earthwards in floods,

Upswelling the deluging fountains;

Strong torrents rush down from the mountains,
And lo! as he reaches the deep river's border
The bridgeworks give way in terrific disorder,

And the waves, with a roaring like thunder,

Sweep o'er the rent wrecks of the arches, and under.

To and fro by the brink of that river he wanders —
In vain he looks out through the offing —
The fiends of the tempests are scoffing
His outcries for aid; — from the opposite strand
No pinnace puts off to convey him to land;

And, made mad by the stormy commotion,
The river-waves foam like the surges of Ocean.

Then he drops on his knees, and he raises his arms
To Jupiter, Strength-and-Help-giver —
"Oh, stem the fierce force of this river!
The hours are advancing — Noon wanes — in the West
Soon Apollo will sink — and my zeal and my best
Aspirations and hopes will be baffled —
And Damon, my Damon, will die on a scaflfold!"

But the tempest abates not, the rapid flood waits not;
On, billow o'er billow comes hasting,
Day, minute by minute, is wasting —
And, daring the worst that the Desperate dare,
He casts himself in with a noble despair;
And he buffets the tyrannous waves —
And Jupiter pities the straggler — and saves.

The hours will not linger: his speed is redoubled —
Forth, Faithfullest! Bravest, exert thee!
The gods cannot surely desert thee!
Alas! as Hope springs in his bosom renewed,
A band of barbarians rush out of the wood,
And they block up the wanderer's path,
And they brandish their weapons in clamorous wrath.

"What will ye?" he cries; "I have naught but my life,

And that must be yielded ere night:

Force me not to defend it by fight!"
But they swarm round him closer, that truculent band,
So he wrests the huge club from one savage's hand,

And he fells the first four at his feet;

And the remnant, dismayed and astounded, retreat.

The storm-burst is over — low glows the red sun,

Making Earth and Air fainter and hotter;

The knees of the fugitive totter —
"Alas!" he cries, "have I then breasted the flood,
Have I vanquished those wild men of rapine and blood,

But to perish from languor and pain,

While my hostage, my friend, is my victim in vain?"

When, hark! a cool sound, as of murmuring water!

He hears it — it bubbles — it gushes —

Hark! louder and louder it rushes!
He turns him, he searches, and lo! a pure stream
Kipples forth from a rock, and shines out in the beam

Of the sun ere he fierily sinks,

And the wanderer bathes his hot limbs, and he drinks.

The sun looks his last! — On the oft-trodden pathway

Hies homeward the weariful reaper;

The shadows of evening grow deeper.
When, pressing and hurrying anxiously on,
Two strangers pass Pythias — and list! he hears one

To the other exclaiming, u Oh, shame on

The wretch that betrayed the magnanimous Damon P

Then Horror lends wings to his faltering feet,

And he dashes in agony onward;

And soon a few roofs, looking sunward,
Gleam faintly where Syracuse' suburbs extend;
And the good Philodemus, his freedman and friend,

Now comes forward in tears to his master,

Who gathers despair from that face of disaster.

"Back, Master! Preserve thine own life at the least!

His, I fear me, thou canst not redeem,

For the last rays of Eventide beam:
Oh! though hour after hour travelled on to its goal,
He expected thy coming with confident soul,

And though mocked by the King as forsaken,

His trust in thy truth to the last was unshaken!"

"Eternal Avenger, and is it too late?"

Cried the youth, with a passionate fervor,

"And dare not I be his preserver?
Then Death shall unite whom not Hell shall divide!
We will die, he and I, on the rood, side by side,

And the bloody Destroyer shall find

That there be souls whom Friendship and Honor can
bind!"

SCHILLER. l

And on, on, unresting, he bounds like a roe:

See! they lay the long cross on the ground!

See! the multitude gather all round!
See! already they hurry their victim along!
When, with giant-like strength, a man bursts through the
throng,

And — uOh, stay, stay your hands!" is his cry —.

"I am come! — I am here! — I am ready to die!"

And Astonishment masters the crowd at the sight,
While the friends in the arms of each other
Weep tears that they struggle to smother.
Embarrassed, the lictors and officers bring
The strange tidings at length to the ears of the King,
And a human emotion steals o'er him,
And he orders the friends to be summoned before him.

And, admiring, he looks at them long ere he speaks —
"You have conquered, O marvellous pair,
By a friendship as glorious as rare!

You have melted to flesh the hard heart in my breast!

Go in peace! — you are free! But accord one request
To my earnest entreaties and wishes —
Accept a third friend in your King, Dionysius."