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THE DOOM OF THE PRYNNES
45
Part II.
MARK wrote too much, and hated what he wrote,
Till Agnes said " I must pen ' leaders ' too."
Whereat he answered, " Here is my receipt, —
Sneer at the Emperor, Cobden, and John Bright ;
Declare that Gladstone is too eloquent,
And that the peril of the land demands
A jocund premier.
Prove that working men
Are brutal, fools, with Machiavellian skill ;
That they will climb to power as Satan climbed,
To fall as Satan fell, and — Let me see :
No, that was Samson — drew the gates down with him."
And then, across the caustic of his words,
There dropped the wondrous nectar of his smile,
A smile as joyous, frank, and innocent
As that with which a babe awakes from sleep.
