--sceptres for the bold!
Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold.'
'Nay!' said the Baron, kneeling in his hall,
'But Iron--Cold Iron--is master of men all!
Iron, out of Calvary, is master of men all!'

GLORIANA

The Two Cousins

Valour and Innocence
Have latterly gone hence
To certain death by certain shame attended.
Envy--ah! even to tears!--
The fortune of their years
Which, though so few, yet so divinely ended.

Scarce had they lifted up
Life's full and fiery cup,
Than they had set it down untouched before them.
Before their day arose
They beckoned it to close--
Close in destruction and confusion o'er them.

They did not stay to ask
What prize should crown their task,
Well sure that prize was such as no man strives for;
But passed into eclipse,
Her kiss upon their lips--
Even Belphoebe's, whom they gave their lives for!

Gloriana

Willow Shaw, the little fenced wood where the hop-poles are stacked like
Indian wigwams, had been given to Dan and Una for their very own kingdom
when they were quite small. As they grew older, they contrived to keep
it most particularly private. Even Phillips, the gardener, told them
every time that he came in to take a hop-pole for his beans, and old
Hobden would no more have thought of setting his rabbit-wires there
without leave, given fresh each spring, than he would have torn down the
calico and marking ink notice on the big willow which said: 'Grown-ups
not allowed in the Kingdom unless brought.'

Now you can understand their indignation when, one blowy July afternoon,
as they were going up for a potato-roast, they saw somebody moving
among the trees. They hurled themselves over the gate, dropping half the
potatoes, and while they were picking them up Puck came out of a wigwam.

'Oh, it's you, is it?' said Una. 'We thought it was people.' 'I saw you
were angry--from your legs,' he answered with a grin.

'Well, it's our own Kingdom--not counting you, of course.'

'That's rather why I came. A lady here wants to see you.'

'What about?' said Dan cautiously. 'Oh, just Kingdoms and things. She
knows about Kingdoms.'

There was a lady near the fence dressed in a long dark cloak that hid
everything except her high red-heeled shoes. Her face was half covered
by a black silk fringed mask, without goggles. And yet she did