Poems (May)/Scene from Dumas's "Stockholm, Fontainebleau, et Rome"

by Edith May

SCENE FROM THE "STOCKHOLM, FONTAINEBLEAU, ET ROME," OF ALEX. DUMAS.

Christina, Ex-Queen of Sweden.Envoys.

christina.

        Good-morrow, gentlemen! You seek me—I guess wherefore. Sweden's queen How gladly I would be again, God knows Whose hand withholds me from the throne. Yon sceptre, So fair to look upon, must grace my tomb. You come too late.

an envoy.

You come too late. Madame, for the Powers Supreme It never is too late. God's self, when kings, Empires, and nations in the balance tremble, Looks twice before he strikes; and sometimes, when The death-hour's ready, beckons up the sun From the horizon, and signs back the night. His power can do as much for you.

ANOTHER.

His power can do as much for you. Ah, Madame! Heaven grant ere long we see you on that throne Where faithful Sweden looks for you!

CHRISTINA.Where faithful Sweden looks for you! Christina Hath ever lived for Sweden's happiness. But to us all there comes an hour that knows No happiness save that beyond the tomb.

1st envoy.

Ay, but upon your brow suffer, at least This crown, that so, when Death prepares to strike The woman, seeing on your front its circle, He may confounded wing him back to Heaven, To question if the polished dart he grasps Were sharpened for the queen.

christina.

Were sharpened for the queen. There's need of courage For that. Oh, heavy is the diadem To dying brows! When drop the palsied head And the relaxing hand, sceptres and crowns Are weary weights to carry to the tomb; And when seven times the voice of God shall echo Along the sepulchres, and the scared dead Make answer, kings shall be the palest of them! And more than one, arising, shall express, Forgetting crown and sceptre, leave them hid In the remotest shadows of his prison.