Stephen's Guest heareth that business is toward within;
but the monologuising Mariner continueth his tale.]

The Speaker hath paced into the House,
Toward his lofty place;
Gleaming like gold before him goes
The merry, massive Mace.

St. Stephen's Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he could not chuse but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The garrulous Mariner.

[But behold the tale that was told unto St. Stephen's Guest by
the Ancient Mariner is now known unto all men, from repeated
and prolix narrations; the tale to wit of the Mariner's
startling adventure in unsailed seas on board his suddenly
launched _Home Rule_ Argo; how that the Ancient Mariner shot
the Oof Bird (that made the (financial) mare to go, and the
(party) breeze to blow); how that his shipmates cried out
against the Ancient Mariner for killing the bird of good luck,
which lay the golden eggs, but how, when the fog cleared off,
they justified the same, and thus made themselves accomplices
in the act; how "the spell began to break;" how "the Mariner
hath been cast into a trance, and the angelic power" (of
speech) "causeth the vessel to drive northward faster than"
(ordinary) human "life could endure"; how in the Mariner's
opinion the _Home Rule_ Argo yet "stoppeth the way," and until
it hath free course must impede the fair navigation of the
(political) ocean; and how, finally, he, the Ancient Mariner,
is constrained to "pop up" and repeat this tale of change and
chance unto the appointed persons.]

* * * * *

Forthwith this tongue of mine was stirred
To quenchless fluency,
Which forced me to begin my tale,
As now I tell it thee.

Since then, at an uncertain hour,
This ecstasy returns;
And till my thrice-told tale is through
The heart within me burns.

I pass, like _Puck_, from land to land,
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see
I know the man that must hear me,
To him my tale I teach.

* * * * *

What loud uproar bursts from that door!
They're at it hotly there:
Will they be silenced by the tale
Told by the Mariner?
Bim! Boom! There goes Big Ben's deep bell!
The Speaker's in the Chair!

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE PARLIAMENTARY "ANCIENT MARINER."

"IT IS AN ANCIENT MARINER,