When little Jean, the bailiff’s son and heir,
Fell sick and threw the doctors in despair.
A child so stout and strong that few would think
An hour might carry him to death’s dark brink,
Yet pale he lay, tho’ hidden was the cause,
And Galens search’d in vain thro’ Nature’s laws.
But stricken sadness could not quite suppress
The roving thought, or wrinkled grandam’s guess:
Tho’ spoke by stealth, ’twas known to half a score
That Dame De Blois rode by the day before;
She had (they said) with glances weird and wild
Paus’d by the gate to view the prattling child,
Nor did they like the smile which seem’d to trace
New lines of evil on her proud, dark face.
These things they whisper’d, when the mother’s cry
Told of the end—the gentle soul gone by;
In genuine grief the kindly watcher wept,
Whilst the lov’d babe with saints and angels slept.
The village priest his simple rites went thro’,
And good Michel nail’d up the box of yew;
Around the corpse the holy candles burn’d,
The mourners sighed, the parents dumbly yearn’d.
Then one by one each sought his humble bed,
And left the lonely mother with her dead.
Late in the night it was, when o’er the vale
The storm-king swept with pandemoniac gale;
Deep pil’d the cruel snow, yet strange to tell,
The lightning sputter’d while the white flakes fell;
A hideous presence seem’d abroad to steal,
And terror sounded in the thunder’s peal.
Within the house of grief the tapers glow’d
Whilst the poor mother bow’d beneath her load;
Her salty eyes too tired now to weep,
Too pain’d to see, too sad to close in sleep.
The clock struck three, above the tempest heard,
When something near the lifeless infant stirr’d;
Some slipp’ry thing, that flopp’d in awkward way,
And climb’d the table where the coffin lay;
With scaly convolutions strove to find
The cold, still clay that death had left behind.
The nodding mother hears—starts broad awake—
Empower’d to reason, yet too stunn’d to shake;
The pois’nous thing she sees, and nimbly foils
The ghoulish purpose of the quiv’ring coils:
With ready axe the serpent’s head she cleaves,
And thrills with savage triumph whilst she grieves.
The injur’d reptile hissing glides from sight,
And hides its cloven carcass in the night.
The weeks slipp’d by, and gossip’s tongue began
To call the Sieur De Blois an alter’d man;
With curious mien he oft would pace along
The village street, and eye the gaping throng.
Yet whilst he shew’d himself as ne’er before,
His wild-eyed lady was observ’d no more.
In course of time, ’twas scarce thought odd or ill
That he his ears with village lore should fill;
Nor was the town with special rumour rife
When he sought out the bailiff and his wife:
Their tale of sorrow, with its ghastly end,
Was told, indeed, by ev’ry wond’ring friend.
The Sieur heard all, and low’ring rode away,
Nor was he seen again for many a day.
When vernal sunshine shed its cheering glow,
And genial zephyrs blew away the snow,
To frighten’d swains a horror was reveal’d
In the damp herbage of a melting field.
There (half preserv’d by winter’s frigid bed)
Lay the dark Dame De Blois, untimely dead;
By some assassin’s stroke most foully slain,
Her shapely brow and temples cleft in twain.
Reluctant hands the dismal burden bore
To the stone arches of the husband’s door,
Where silent serfs the ghastly thing receiv’d,
Trembling with fright, but less amaz’d than griev’d;
The Sieur his dame beheld with blazing eyes,
And shook with anger, more than with surprise.
(At least ’tis thus the stupid peasants told
Their wide-mouth’d wives when they the tale unroll’d.)
The village wonder’d why De Blois had kept
His spouse’s loss unmention’d and unwept,
Nor were there lacking sland’rous tongues to claim
That the dark master was himself to blame.
But village talk could scarcely hope to solve
A crime so deep, and thus the months revolve:
The rural train repeat the gruesome tale,
And gape and marvel more than they bewail.
Swift flew the sun, and winter once again
With icy talons gripp’d the frigid plain.
December brought its store of Christmas cheer,
And grateful peasants hail’d the op’ning year;
But by the hearth as Candlemas drew nigh,
The whisp’ring ancients spoke of things gone by.
Few had forgot the dark demoniac lore
Of things that came the Candlemas before,
And many a crone intently eyed the house
Where dwelt the sadden’d bailiff and his spouse.
At last the day arriv’d, the sky o’erspread
With dark’ning messengers and clouds of lead;
Each neighb’ring grove Aeolian warnings sigh’d,
And thick’ning terrors broadcast seem’d to bide.
The good folk, tho’ they knew not why, would run
Swift past the bailiff’s door, the scene to shun;
Within the house the grieving couple wept,
And mourn’d the child who now forever slept.
On rush’d the dusk in doubly hideous form,
Borne on the pinions of the gath’ring storm;
Unusual murmurs fill’d the rainless wind,
The rising river lash’d the troubled shore;
Black thro’ the night the awful storm-god prowl’d,
And froze the list’ners’ life-blood as he howl’d;
Gigantic trees like supple rushes sway’d,
Whilst for his home the trembling cotter pray’d.
Now falls a sudden lull amidst the gale;
With less’ning force the circling currents wail;
Far down the stream that laves the neighb’ring mead
Burst a new ululation, wildly key’d;
The peasant train a frantic mien assume,
And huddle closer in the spectral gloom:
To each strain’d ear the truth too well is known,
For that dread sound can come from wolves alone!
The rustics close attend, when ere they think,
A lupine army swarms the river’s brink;
From out the waters leap a howling train
That rend the air, and scatter o’er the plain:
With flaming orbs the frothing creatures fly,
And chant with hellish voice their hungry cry.
First of the pack a mighty monster leaps
With fearless tread, and martial order keeps;
Th’ attendant wolves his yelping tones obey,
And form in columns for the coming fray:
No frighten’d swain they harm, but silent bound
With a fix’d purpose o’er the frozen ground.
Straight course the monsters thro’ the village street,
Unholy vigour in their flying feet;
Thro’ half-shut blinds the shelter’d peasants peer,
And wax in wonder as they lose in fear.
Th’ excited pack at last their goal
perceive,
And the vex’d air with deaf’ning clamour cleave;
The churls, astonish’d, watch th’ unnatural herd
Flock round a cottage at the leader’s word:
Quick spreads the fearsome fact, by rumour blown,
That the doom’d cottage is the bailiff’s own!
Round and around the howling daemons glide,
Whilst the fierce leader scales the vine-clad side;
The frantic wind its horrid wail renews,
And mutters madly thro’ the lifeless yews.
In the frail house the bailiff calmly waits
The rav’ning horde, and trusts th’ impartial Fates,
But the wan wife revives with curious mien
Another monster and an older scene;
Amidst th’ increasing wind that rocks the walls,
The dame to him the serpent’s deed recalls:
Then as a nameless thought fills both their minds,
The bare-fang’d leader crashes thro’ the blinds.
Across the room, with murd’rous fury rife,
Leaps the mad wolf, and seizes on the wife;
With strange intent he drags his shrieking prey
Close to the spot where once the coffin lay.
Wilder and wilder roars the mounting gale
That sweeps the hills and hurtles thro’ the vale;
The ill-made cottage shakes, the pack without
Dance with new fury in demoniac rout.
Quick as his thought, the valiant bailiff stands
Above the wolf, a weapon in his hands;
The ready axe that serv’d a year before,
Now serves as well to slay one monster more.
The creature drops inert, with shatter’d head,
Full on the floor, and silent as the dead;
The rescu’d wife recalls the dire alarms,
And faints from terror in her husband’s arms.
But as he holds her, all the cottage quakes,
And with full force the titan tempest breaks:
Down crash the walls, and o’er their shrinking forms
Burst the mad revels of the storm of storms.
Th’ encircling wolves advance with ghastly pace,
Hunger and murder in each gleaming face,
But as they close, from out the hideous night
Flashes a bolt of unexpected light:
The vivid scene to ev’ry eye appears,
And peasants shiver with returning fears.
Above the wreck the scatheless chimney stays,
Its outline glimm’ring in the fitful rays,
Whilst o’er the hearth still hangs the household shrine,
The Saviour’s image and the Cross divine!
Round the blest spot a lambent radiance glows,
And shields the cotters from their stealthy foes:
Each monstrous creature marks the wondrous glare,
Drops, fades, and vanishes in empty air!
The village train with startled eyes adore,
And count their beads in rev’rence o’er and o’er.
Now fades the light, and dies the raging blast,
The hour of dread and reign of horror past.
Pallid and bruis’d, from out his toppled walls
The panting bailiff with his good wife crawls:
Kind hands attend them, whilst o’er all the town
A strange sweet peace of spirit settles down.
Wonder and fear are still’d in soothing sleep,
As thro’ the breaking clouds the moon rays peep.
Here paus’d the prattling grandam in her speech,
Confus’d with age, the tale half out of reach;
The list’ning guest, impatient for a clue,
Fears ’tis not one tale, but a blend of two;
He fain would know how far’d the widow’d lord
Whose eerie ways th’ initial theme afford,
And marvels that the crone so quick should slight
His fate, to babble of the wolf-wrack’d night.
The old wife, press’d, for greater clearness strives,
Nods wisely, and her scatter’d wits revives;
Yet strangely lingers on her latter tale
Of wolf and bailiff, miracle and gale.
When (quoth the crone) the dawn’s bright radiance bath’d
Th’ eventful scene, so late in terror swath’d,
The chatt’ring churls that sought the ruin’d cot
Found a new marvel in the gruesome spot.
From fallen walls a trail of gory red,
As of the stricken wolf, erratic led;
O’er road and mead the new-dript crimson wound,
Till lost amidst the neighb’ring swampy ground:
With wonder unappeas’d the peasants burn’d,
For what the quicksand takes is ne’er return’d.
Once more the grandam, with a knowing eye,
Stops in her tale, to watch a hawk soar by;
The weary list’ner, baffled, seeks anew
For some plain statement, or enlight’ning clue.
Th’ indulgent crone attends the puzzled plea,
Yet strangely mutters o’er the mystery.
The Sieur? Ah, yes—that morning all in vain
His shaking servants scour’d the frozen plain;
No man had seen him since he rode away
In silence on the dark preceding day.
His horse, wild-eyed with some unusual fright,
Came wand’ring from the river-bank that night.
His hunting-hound, that mourn’d with piteous woe,
Howl’d by the quicksand swamp, his grief to shew.
The village folk thought much, but utter’d less;
The servants’ search wore out in emptiness:
For Sieur De Blois (the old wife’s tale is o’er)
Was lost to mortal sight for evermore.
Revelation
In a vale of light and laughter,
Shining ’neath the friendly sun,
Where fulfilment follow’d after
Ev’ry hope or dream begun;
Where an Aidenn gay and glorious,
Beckon’d down the winsome way;
There my soul, o’er pain victorious,
Laugh’d and lingered—yesterday.
Green and narrow was my valley,
Temper’d with a verdant shade;
Sun-deck’d brooklets musically
Sparkled thro’ each glorious glade;
And at night the stars serenely
Glow’d betwixt the boughs o’erhead,
While Astarte, calm and queenly,
Floods of fairy radiance shed.
There amid the tinted bowers,
Raptur’d with the opiate spell
Of the grasses, ferns, and flowers,
Poppy, phlox and pimpernel,
Long I lay, entranc’d and dreaming,
Pleas’d with Nature’s bounteous store,
Till I mark’d the shaded gleaming
Of the sky, and yearn’d for more.
Eagerly the branches tearing,
Clear’d I all the space above,
Till the bolder gaze, high faring,
Scann’d the naked skies of Jove;
Deeps unguess’d now shone before me,
Splendid beam’d the solar car;
Wings of fervid fancy bore me
Out beyond the farthest star.
Reaching, gasping, wishing, longing
For the pageant brought to sight,
Vain I watch’d the gold orbs thronging
Round celestial poles of light.
Madly on a moonbeam ladder
Heav’n’s abyss I sought to scale,
Ever wiser, ever sadder,
As the fruitless task would fail.
Then, with futile striving sated,
Veer’d my soul to earth again,
Well content that I was fated
For a fair, yet low
domain;
Pleasing thoughts of glad tomorrows,
Like the blissful moments past,
Lull’d to rest my transient sorrows,
Still’d my godless greed at last.
But my downward glance, returning,
Shrank in fright from what it spy’d;
Slopes in hideous torment burning,
Terror in the brooklet’s tide:
For the dell, of shade denuded
By my desecrating hand,
’Neath the bare sky blaz’d and brooded
As a lost, accursed land.
The Rose of England
At morn the rosebud greets the sun
And sheds the evening dew,
Expanding ere the day is done,
In bloom of radiant hue;
And when the sun his rest hath found,
Rose-petals strow the garden round!
Thus that blest Isle that owns the Rose
From mist and darkness came,
A million glories to disclose,
And spread BRITANNIA’S name;
And ere Life’s Sun shall leave the blue,
ENGLAND shall reign the whole world thro’!
Sunset
The cloudless day is richer at its close;
A golden glory settles on the lea;
Soft, stealing shadows hint of cool repose
To mellowing landscape, and to calming sea.
And in that nobler, gentler, lovelier light,
The soul to sweeter, loftier bliss inclines;
Freed form the noonday glare, the favour’d sight
Increasing grace in earth and sky divines.
But ere the purest radiance crowns the green,
Or fairest lustre fills th’ expectant grove,
The twilight thickens, and the fleeting scene
Leaves but a hallow’d memory of love!
To Clark Ashton Smith, Esq.,
upon His Phantastick Tales,
Verses, Pictures, and Sculptures
A time-black tower against dim banks of cloud;
Around its base the pathless, pressing wood.
Shadow and silence, moss and mould, enshroud
Grey, age-fell’d slabs that once as cromlechs stood.
No fall of foot, no song of bird awakes
The lethal aisles of sempiternal night,
Tho’ oft with stir of wings the dense air shakes,
As in the tower there glows a pallid light.
For here, apart, dwells one whose hands have wrought
Strange eidola that chill the world with fear;
Whose graven runes in tones of dread have taught
The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Collection (Xist Classics) Page 215