StoryTitle("caps", "How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix") ?>
have an old essay written by a lad of fourteen years on "How They
Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix." I should judge from this
essay that any boy at that age would like the poem, even if he had not
himself been over the ground as this boy had. (1812-89.)
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Good speed!\" cried the watch as the gate-bolts undrew;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Speed!\" echoed the wall to us galloping through;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And into the midnight we galloped abreast.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I turned in my saddle and made its girth tight,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear;", "") ?>
PagePoem(174, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At Düffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So Joris broke silence with, \"Yet there is time!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And against him the cattle stood black every one,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To stare through the mist at us galloping past,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With resolute shoulders, each butting away", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And one eye's black intelligence,—ever that glance", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the thick, heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His fierce lips shook upward in galloping on.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris, \"Stay spur!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We'll remember at Aix\"—for one heard the quick wheeze", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank.", "") ?>
PagePoem(175, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So, we were left galloping, Joris and I,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And \"Gallop,\" gasped Joris, \"for Aix is in sight!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"How they'll greet us!\"—and all in a moment his roan", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then I cast loose my buff-coat, each holster let fall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or good,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all I remember is—friends flocking round", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine,", "") ?>
PagePoem(176, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Which (the burgesses voting by common consent)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was no more than his due who brought the good news from Ghent.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Robert Browning.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>