late in the day for this,
he chooses the short cut by the gallows, as the next best thing. But he
is, above all, desirous to be taken while the penitent fit is on him:
and urgently sets forth those past misdeeds, which constitute his and
his wife's claim to a speedy despatch, such as will place them beyond
the danger of backsliding. Already, he declares, Satan is whispering to
him of the pleasures he is leaving behind; and the seductions of
to-morrow's brawl and bear-baiting are threatening to turn the scale.
Another moment, and instead of going up to heaven, like Faithful, in a
chariot and pair, he will be the Lost Man in the Iron Cage!

When the two have had their wish, and been hanged "out of hand," the
bystanders are edified to tears. But the loyalty of the Chief Justice
forbids any imputing of the act of grace to the influence of John
Bunyan. Its cause lies rather, he asserts, in the twelve years' pious
reign of the restored Charles.

The second series of the "Dramatic Idyls" was published in 1880, and
contains:--

"Echetlos."
"Clive."
"Muleykeh."
"Pietro of Abano."
"Doctor ----"
"Pan and Luna."

It has also a little prologue and epilogue: the former satirizing the
pretension to understand the Soul, which we cannot see, while we are
baffled by the workings of the bodily organs, which we can see; the
latter directed against the popular idea that the more impressible and
more quickly responsive natures are the soil of which "song" is born.
The true poet, it declares, is as the pine tree which has grown out of a
rock.

"ECHETLOS" (holder of the ploughshare) is another legend of the battle
of Marathon. It tells, in Mr. Browning's words, how one with the
goat-skin garment, and the broad bare limbs of a "clown," was seen on
the battle-field ploughing down the enemy's ranks: the ploughshare
flashing now here, now there, wherever the Grecian lines needed
strengthening; how he vanished when the battle was won; and how the
oracle, of which his name was asked, bade the inquirers not care for it:

"Say but just this: We praise one helpful whom we call
The Holder of the Ploughshare. The great deed ne'er grows small."
(vol. xv. p. 87.)

Miltiades and Themistocles had shown that a great name could do so.[105]

The anecdote which forms the basis of "CLIVE," was told to Mr. Browning
in 1846 by Mrs. Jameson, who had short