Only one thing holds its crumbling walls above the meaner dust,-- Listen to the simple story of a woman's love and trust. II Count von Resanoff, the Russian, envoy of the mighty Czar, Stood beside the deep embrasures, where the brazen cannon are. He with grave provincial magnates long had held serene debate On the Treaty of Alliance and the high affairs of state; He from grave provincial magnates oft had turned to talk apart With the Commandante's daughter on the questions of the heart, Until points of gravest import yielded slowly one by one, And by Love was consummated what Diplomacy begun; Till beside the deep embrasures, where the brazen cannon are, He received the twofold contract for approval of the Czar; Till beside the brazen cannon the betrothed bade adieu, And from sallyport and gateway north the Russian eagles flew. III Long beside the deep embrasures, where the brazen cannon are, Did they wait the promised bridegroom and the answer of the Czar; Day by day on wall and bastion beat the hollow, empty breeze,-- Day by day the sunlight glittered on the vacant, smiling seas: Week by week the near hills whitened in their dusty leather cloaks,-- Week by week the far hills darkened from the fringing plain of oaks; Till the rains came, and far breaking, on the fierce southwester tost, Dashed the whole long coast with color, and then vanished and were lost. So each year the seasons shifted,--wet and warm and drear and dry Half a year of clouds and flowers, half a year of dust and sky. Still it brought no ship nor message,--brought no tidings, ill or meet, For the statesmanlike Commander, for the daughter fair and sweet. Yet she heard the varying message, voiceless to all ears beside: "He will come," the flowers whispered; "Come no more," the dry hills sighed. Still she found him with the waters lifted by the morning breeze,-- Still she lost him with the folding of the great white-tented seas; Until hollows chased the dimples from her cheeks of olive brown, And at times a swift, shy moisture dragged the long sweet lashes down; Or the small mouth curved and quivered as for some denied caress, And the fair young brow was knitted in an infantine distress. Then the grim Commander, pacing where the brazen cannon are, Comforted the maid with proverbs, wisdom gathered from afar; Bits of ancient observation by his fathers garnered, each As a pebble worn and polished in the current of his speech: "'Those who wait the coming rider travel twice as far as he;' 'Tired wench and coming butter never did in time agree;' "'He that getteth himself honey, though a clown, he shall have flies;' 'In the end God grinds the miller;' 'In the dark the mole has eyes;'