Horse? but he had one: had it how long? till the first knave smirked
"You brag
Yourself a friend of the King's? then lend to a King's friend here
your nag!"
Money to buy another? Why, piece by piece they plundered him still,
With their "Wait you must;--no help: if aught can help you, a guinea
will!"

And a borough there was--I forget the name--whose Mayor must have
the bench
Of Justices ranged to clear a doubt: for "Vincent," thinks he,
sounds French!
It well may have driven him daft, God knows! all man can certainly
know
Is--rushing and falling and rising, at last he arrived in a
horror--so!

When a word, cry, gasp, would have rescued both! Ay bite me! The
worm begins
At his work once more. Had cowardice proved--that only--my sin of
sins!
Friends, look you here! Suppose ... suppose.... But mad I am, needs
must be!
Judas the Damned would never have dared such a sin as I dream! For,
see!

Suppose I had sneakingly loved her myself, my wretched self, and
dreamed
In the heart of me "She were better dead than happy and his!"--while
gleamed
A light from hell as I spied the pair in a perfectest embrace,
He the savior and she the saved,--bliss born of the very murder-place!

No! Say I was scared, friends! Call me fool and coward, but nothing
worse!
Jeer at the fool and gibe at the coward! 'Twas ever the coward's
curse
That fear breeds fancies in such: such take their shadow for
substance still,
--A fiend at their back. I liked poor Parkes,--loved Vincent, if
you will!

And her--why, I said "Good morrow" to her, "Good even," and nothing
more:
The neighborly way! She was just to me as fifty had been before.
So, coward it is and coward shall be! There's a friend, now!
Thanks! A drink
Of water I wanted: and now I can walk, get home by myself, I think.

This poem, on an incident in Clive's life, is also included on account
of its English historical setting.

The remarkable career of Robert Clive cannot be gone into here. Suffice
it to refresh one's memory with a few principal events of his life. He
was born in Shopshire in 1725. He entered the service of the East India
Company at eighteen and was sent to Madras. Here, on account of his
f