Arthur Caddick
Tidings
She would whisper frenziedly,
Knocking in haste the earthen jar
To spill cool water in the heavy Persian night,
That Salamis was lost and the mad tyrant
Had lashed the sea in spite.
She would find him in a gaming-den,
Stupid with Falerian,
And pull him from the dice,
And say and say and say again
That only between Attila and the Gate
Was panic, treason, and a falling state.
In some salon’s elegance of silk
She would write the quick dramatic note,
Pressed by a flunkey in her lover’s hand,
While he was selling France for contraband,
And it would read the Emperor had fled.
And he, satrap, patrician, financier,
Eternally would disbelieve
Caressing voice ill-tuned to menace,
Mistress writing scented ruin,
And would, at last, reluctant, leave
Pavilion, gaming-den, banking-room,
To find the truth about it all.
Then face her, clamorous with the fact,
No woman’s rumour borne on whispers now,
That Xerxes sailed in vanity to fall,
That Rome was holocaust and sacked,
That Bonaparte had warred himself to doom.
Page(s) 138
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