She is not happy! It was noon;
The sun fell on my head:
And it was not an hour in which
We think upon the dead.

She is not happy! I should know
Her voice, much more her cry;
And close beside me a great rose
Had just begun to die.

She is not happy! As I walked,
Of her I was aware:

She cried out, like a creature hurt,
Close by me in the air.

Under the trembling summer stars,
I turned from side to side;
When she came in and sat with me,
As though she had not died.

But then again came back to me;

My eyes implored her so!

From under all those letters one small sheet, Folded and writ in haste;

Why did my heart with sudden sharpness beat?

Alas, it was not sad!

Her saddest words I had read calmly o'er. 30 Alas, it had no pain!

Her painful words, all these I knew before.

125

We reached the wharf Only to see their wherry, a small black cloud Dwindling far down that running silver road. Ben touched my arm.

'Look there,' he said, pointing up stream.

The moon Glanced on a cluster of pikes, like silver thorns,

Three hundred yards away, a little troop 130 Of weaponed men, embarking hurriedly. Their great black wherry clumsily swung about,

When, with twelve oars for legs, came striding down,

An armoured beetle on the glittering trail Of some small victim.

Just below our wharf 135

A little dinghy waddled.

And then we swung our nose against their bows

And pulled them round with every wellmeant stroke.

A full half minute, ere they won quite free,
Cursing us for a pair of drunken fools.
We drifted down behind them.

'There's no doubt,' 190 Said Ben, 'the headsman waits behind all this

For Raleigh. This is a play to cheat the soul

Of England, teach the people to applaud
The red fifth act.'

Without another word we drifted down 195
For centuries it seemed, until we came
To Greenwich.

Then up the long white burnished reach there crept

Like little sooty clouds the two black boats To meet us.

'He is in the trap,' said Ben, 200 'And does not know it yet. See, where he sits By Stukeley as by a friend.'

Long after this, We heard how Raleigh, simply as a child, Seeing the tide would never serve him now, And they must turn, had taken from his neck

205

Some trinkets that he wore. 'Keep them,' he said

To Stukeley, 'in remembrance of this night.'

He had no doubts of Stukeley when he saw The wherry close beside them. He but wrapped

His cloak a little closer round his face. 210 Our boat rocked in their wash when Stukeley dropped

The mask. We saw him give the sign, and heard

His high-pitched quavering voice - 'IN THE KING'S NAME!'

Raleigh rose to his feet. 'I am under arrest?' He said, like a dazed man.

And Stukeley laughed. 215 Then, as he bore himself to the grim end, All doubt being over, the old sea-king stood Among those glittering points, a king indeed. The black boats rocked. We heard his level voice,

'Sir Lewis, these actions never will turn out 220 To your good credit.' Across the moonlit Thames

It rang contemptuously, cold as cold steel, And passionless as the judgment that ends all.

'Take this up to your mistress. It concerns Her property,' he said. 'Say that I wait, And would be glad to speak with her.'

The wench Looked pertly in his face, and tripped upstairs.

I scarce could trust my hands.

'Sir Lewis,' I said, 240 "This is no time to trouble her. She is ill.' 'Let her decide,' he answered, with a sneer. Before I found another word to say

The maid tripped down again. I scarce believed

My senses, when she beckoned him up the

stair.

245