The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE SCORPION given, and a kiss stolen at night, I want none of your dusty conclaves. I had as lief be a scholar. SIR JAMES. If the world were like thee, Christendom would perish in a year and a day. Thy good knights comrades would row the Turkish galleys, and a few prize fools—such as thou—make sport for their Emirs or guard their women. JOCELYN. And a good thing. I am weary of crusading. The sacred Sepulchre is empty—praise God, Who performed a miracle to make it so l—and we must perforce come and fill thousands more with good Christian flesh and blood, that was alive and jolly. Let us be off, though! The Preceptor sheds dullness as the sun sheds light, alike on the evil and on the good. One, two, three—I’ll race you all to Sidi Khaled. [They go of R. toward their horses, JOCELYN Singing as he goes. What is the worth Of a hound or a hawk? A monkey for mirth! A parrot for talk! Rosamond’s skin Is whiter than milk, Seductive as sin And softer than silk. Would I were back From crusade for an hour, My limbs lying slack In Rosamond’s bower! [From thefiolrm C. comes forward LAYLAH, veiled, with a pitcher. She attaches z'! to the cordofthe lever and 73