“Ha, ha!” then laughed the constables who also stood to warm themselves, The while another maiden scrutinized his features hard, As the blaze threw into contrast every line and knot that wrinkled them, Exclaiming, “Why, last night when he was brought in by the guard, You were with him in the yard!” “Nay, nay, you teasing wench, I say! You know you speak mistakenly. Cannot a tired pedestrian who has footed it afar Here on his way from northern parts, engrossed in humble marketings, Come in and rest awhile, although judicial doings are Afoot by morning star?” “O, come, come!” laughed the constables. “Why, man, you speak the dialect He uses in his answers; you can hear him up the stairs. So own it. We sha’n’t hurt ye. There he’s speaking now! His syllables Are those you sound yourself when you are talking unawares, As this pretty girl declares.” “And you shudder when his chain clinks!” she rejoined. “O yes, I noticed it. And you winced, too, when those cuffs they gave him echoed to us here. They’ll soon be coming down, and you may then have to defend yourself Unless you hold your tongue, or go away and keep you clear When he’s led to judgment near!” “No! I’ll be damned in hell if I know anything about the man! No single thing about him more than everybody knows! Must not I even warm my hands but I am charged with blasphemies?” . . . —His face convulses as the morning cock that moment crows, And he stops, and turns, and goes. THE OBLITERATE TOMB “MORE than half my life long Did they weigh me falsely, to my bitter wrong, But they all have shrunk away into the silence Like a lost song. “And the day has dawned and come For forgiveness, when the past may hold it dumb On the once reverberate words of hatred uttered Half in delirium . . . “With folded lips and hands They lie and wait what next the Will commands, And doubtless think, if think they can: ‘Let discord Sink with Life’s sands!’ “By these late years their names, Their virtues, their hereditary claims, May be as near defacement at their grave-place As are their fames.” —Such thoughts bechanced to seize A traveller’s mind—a man of memories— As he set foot within the western city Where had died these Who in their lifetime deemed Him their chief enemy—one whose brain had schemed To get their dingy greatness deeplier dingied And disesteemed. So, sojourning in their town, He mused on them and on their once renown, And said, “I’ll seek their resting-place to-morrow Ere I lie down, “And end, lest I forget, Those ires of many years that I regret, Renew their names, that men may see some liegeness Is left them yet.”