Collected Works (Vol. I)

JEPHTHATII 73 But God had pity upon us, Our evil and fallen way; Ilis mercy was mighty on us ; Ilis lips are as rosy as day Broken out of the sea at the sunrise, as fragrant as flowers in May. Our sin was great in His sight: We chased from our gates our brother, We shamed his father’s might, We spat on the grave of his mother, We laughed in his face and mocked, look- ing slyly one to another. But God beheld, and His hand Was heavy to bring us grief; He brought down fire on the land, And withered us root and Icaf Until we were utterly broken, lost men, without a chief. But whom we scorned we have set A leader and judge over all; His wrong he may not forget, But he pitieth men that call From the heart that is broken with fear and the noise of funeral, JEPHTHAH. Are all these ready for their hearth and altars To perish suddenly upon the field, Pavilioned with the little tents at noon, And ere the nightfall ten.ed with the dead, And every hollow made a sepulchre, And every hill a vantage ground whereon Hard-breathing fighting men get scanty sleep, Till the dawn lift his eyebrows, and the day Renew the battle? Will ye follow me Through slippery ways of blood to Ephraim To beat with sturdy swords unwearying Our foemen to their Ammon, and to grapple With red death clutching at the throat of us, With famine and with pestilence, at last To reach a barren vengeance, and per- chance An hundred of your thousands to return Victors—so best God speed us—and_ for worst Death round our cities horrible and vast, And rape and murder mocking at our ghosts? A SOLDIER. Better they taunt our ghosts than us for cowards ! Live through or die, I will have my sword speak plain To these damned massacring invaders. Say, My fellows, will ye follow Jephthah? Hail! SOLDIERS. We follow Jephthah to the death. All hail ! JEPHTHAH. Go then, refresh yourselves. Sleep well to-night ! [ will send messages to their dread lord [Leder a Herald [emanding his fell purpose, threatening My present aid to you with men of valour Chosen of all your tribes, and charging him As he loves life, and victory, to content. [lis army with their present, brief success, Lest he pass by the barrier of our suffer- ing, And find our wrath no broken sword, and find Despair more terrible than hope. Go now! A SOLDIER. We go, my lord, less readily to sleep Than if you bade us march. No man of us jut stirs a littie, I warrant, in his dreams, And reaches out for sword-hilt. <All hail, Jephthah ! SOLDIERS. Jephthah ! a leader, a deliverer. Hail! [Axeunt Soldiers and Young Men.