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William Wordsworth - The Russian Fugitive
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I

ENOUGH of rose-bud lips, and eyes
     Like harebells bathed in dew,
Of cheek that with carnation vies,
     And veins of violet hue;
Earth wants not beauty that may scorn
     A likening to frail flowers;
Yea, to the stars, if they were born
     For seasons and for hours.

Through Moscow`s gates, with gold unbarred,
     Stepped One at dead of night,
Whom such high beauty could not guard
     From meditated blight;
By stealth she passed, and fled as fast
     As doth the hunted fawn,
Nor stopped, till in the dappling east
     Appeared unwelcome dawn.
 
Seven days she lurked in brake and field,
     Seven nights her course renewed,
Sustained by what her scrip might yield,
     Or berries of the wood;
At length, in darkness travelling on,
     When lowly doors were shut,
The haven of her hope she won,
     Her foster-mother`s hut.

"To put your love to dangerous proof
     I come," said she, "from far;
For I have left my Father`s roof,
     In terror of the czar."
No answer did the Matron give,
     No second look she cast,
But hung upon the fugitive,
     Embracing and embraced.

She led the Lady to a seat
     Beside the glimmering fire,
Bathed duteously her wayworn feet,
     Prevented each desire:—-
The cricket chirped, the house-dog dozed,
     And on that simple bed,
Where she in childhood had reposed,
     Now rests her weary head.

When she, whose couch had been the sod,
     Whose curtain, pine or thorn,
Had breathed a sigh of thanks to God,
     Who comforts the forlorn;
While over her the Matron bent
     Sleep sealed her eyes, and stole
Feeling from limbs with travel spent,
     And trouble from the soul.

Refreshed, the Wanderer rose at morn,
     And soon again was dight
In those unworthy vestments worn
     Through long and perilous flight;
And "O beloved Nurse," she said,
     "My thanks with silent tears
Have unto Heaven and You been paid:
     Now listen to my fears !

"Have you forgot"—-and here she smiled—-
     "The babbling flatteries
You lavished on me when a child
     Disporting round your knees?
I was your lambkin, and your bird,
     Your star, your gem, your flower;
Light words, that were more lightly heard
     In many a cloudless hour!

"The blossom you so fondly praised
     Is come to bitter fruit;
A mighty One upon me gazed;
     I spurned his lawless suit,
And must be hidden from his wrath:
     You, Foster-father dear,
Will guide me in my forward path;
     I may not tarry here!
 
"I cannot bring to utter woe
     Your proved fidelity."—-
"Dear Child, sweet Mistress, say not so!
     For you we both would die."
"Nay, nay, I come with semblance feigned
     And cheek embrowned by art;
Yet, being inwardly unstained,
     With courage will depart."

"But whither would you, could you, flee?
     A poor Man`s counsel take;
The Holy Virgin gives to me
     A thought for your dear sake;
Rest, shielded by our Lady`s grace,
     And soon shall you be led
Forth to a safe abiding-place,
     Where never foot doth tread."

II
THE dwelling of this faithful pair
     In a straggling village stood,
For One who breathed unquiet air
     A dangerous neighbourhood;
But wide around lay forest ground
     With thickets rough and blind;
And pine-trees made a heavy shade
     Impervious to the wind.
 
And there, sequestered from the eight,
     Was spread a treacherous swamp,
On which the noonday sun shed light
     As from a lonely lamp;
And midway in the unsafe morass,
     A single Island rose
Of firm dry ground, with healthful grass
     Adorned, and shady boughs.

The Woodman knew, for such the craft
     This Russian vassal plied,
That never fowler`s gun, nor shaft
     Of archer, there was tried;
A sanctuary seemed the spot
     From all intrusion free;
And there he planned an artful Cot
     For perfect secrecy.

With earnest pains unchecked by dread
     Of Power`s far-stretching hand,
The bold good Man his labor sped
     At nature`s pure command;
Heart-soothed, and busy as a wren,
     While, in a hollow nook,
She moulds her sight-eluding den
     Above a murmuring brook.

His task accomplished to his mind,
     The twain ere break of day
Creep forth, and through the forest wind
     Their solitary way;
 Few words they speak, nor dare to slack
     Their pace from mile to mile,
Till they have crossed the quaking marsh,
     And reached the lonely Isle.

The sun above the pine-trees showed
     A bright and cheerful face;
And Ina looked for her abode,
     The promised hiding-place;
She sought in vain, the Woodman smiled;
     No threshold could be seen,
Nor roof, nor window;Ñall seemed wild
     As it had ever been.

Advancing, you might guess an hour,
     The front with such nice care
Is masked, `if house it be or bower,`
     But in they entered are;
As shaggy as were wall and roof
     With branches intertwined,
So smooth was all within, air-proof,
     And delicately lined:

And hearth was there, and maple dish,
     And cups in seemly rows,
And couch—-all ready to a wish
     For nurture or repose;
And Heaven doth to her virtue grant
     That here she may abide
In solitude, with every want
     By cautious love supplied.
 
No queen, before a shouting crowd,
     Led on in bridal state,
E`er struggled with a heart so proud,
     Entering her palace gate:
Rejoiced to bid the world farewell,
     No saintly anchoress
E`er took possession of her cell
     With deeper thankfulness.

"Father of all, upon thy care
     And mercy am I thrown;
Be thou my safeguard!"—-such her prayer
     When she was left alone,
Kneeling amid the wilderness
     When joy had passed away,
And smiles, fond efforts of distress
     To hide what they betray!

The prayer is heard, the Saints have seen,
     Diffused through form and face,
Resolves devotedly serene;
     That monumental grace
Of Faith, which doth all passions tame
     That Reason should control;
And shows in the untrembling frame
     A statue of the soul.

III
`TIS sung in ancient minstrelsy
     That Phoebus wont to wear
The leaves of any pleasant tree
     Around his golden hair;
Till Daphne, desperate with pursuit
     Of his imperious love,
At her own prayer transformed, took root,
     A laurel in the grove.

Then did the Penitent adorn
     His brow with laurel green;
And `mid his bright locks never shorn
     No meaner leaf was seen;
And poets sage, through every age,
     About their temples wound
The bay; and conquerors thanked the Gods,
     With laurel chaplets crowned,

Into the mists of fabling Time
     So far runs back the praise
Of Beauty, that disdains to climb
     Along forbidden ways;
That scorns temptation; power defies
     Where mutual love is not;
And to the tomb for rescue flies
     When life would be a blot.

To this fair Votaress, a fate
     More mild doth Heaven ordain
Upon her Island desolate;
     And word, not breathed in vain,
Might tell what intercourse she found,
     Her silence to endear;
What birds she tamed, what flowers the ground
     Sent forth her peace to cheer.

To one mute Presence, above all,
     Her soothed affections clung,
A picture on the cabin wall
     By Russian usage hung—-
The Mother-maid, whose countenance bright
     With love abridged the day;
And, communed with by taper light,
     Chased spectral fears away.

And oft as either Guardian came,
     The joy in that retreat
Might any common friendship shame,
     So high their heart would beat;
And to the lone Recluse, whate`er
     They brought, each visiting
Was like the crowding of the year
     With a new burst of spring.

But, when she of her Parents thought,
     The pang was hard to bear;
And, if with all things not enwrought,
     That trouble still is near.
Before her flight she had not dared
     Their constancy to prove,
Too much the heroic Daughter feared
     The weakness of their love.

Dark is the past to them, and dark
     The future still must be,
Till pitying Saints conduct her bark
     Into a safer sea—-
Or gentle Nature close her eyes,
     And set her Spirit free
From the altar of this sacrifice,
     In vestal purity.

Yet, when above the forest-glooms
     The white swans southward passed,
High as the pitch of their swift plume
     Her fancy rode the blast;
And bore her toward the fields of France
     Her Father`s native land,
To mingle in the rustic dance,
      The happiest of the band!

Of those beloved fields she oft
     Had heard her Father tell
In phrase that now with echoes soft
     Haunted her lonely cell;
She saw the hereditary bowers,
     She heard the ancestral stream;
The Kremlin and its haughty towers
     Forgotten like a dream !

IV
THE ever-changing Moon had traced
     Twelve times her monthly round,
When through the unfrequented Waste
     Was heard a startling sound;
A shout thrice sent from one who chased
     At speed a wounded deer,
Bounding through branches interlaced,
     And where the wood was clear.

The fainting creature took the marsh,
     And toward the Island fled,
While plovers screamed with tumult harsh
     Above his antlered head;
This, Ina saw; and, pale with fear,
     Shrunk to her citadel;
The desperate deer rushed on, and near
     The tangled covert fell.

Across the marsh, the game in view,
     The Hunter followed fast,
Nor paused, till o`er the stag he blew
     A death-proclaiming blast;
Then, resting on her upright mind,
     Came forth the Maid—-"In me
Behold," she said, " a stricken Hind
     Pursued by destiny!

"From your deportment, Sir! I deem
     That you have worn a sword,
And will not hold in light esteem
     A suffering woman`s word;
There is my covert, there perchance
     I might have lain concealed,
My fortunes hid, my countenance
     Not even to you revealed.

"Tears might be shed, and I might pray,
     Crouching and terrified,
That what has been unveiled to day,
     You would in mystery hide;
But I will not defile with dust
     The knee that bend to adore
The God in heaven;—-attend, be just;
     This ask I, and no more!

"I speak not of the winter`s cold,
     For summer`s heat exchanged,
While I have lodged in this rough hold,
     From social life estranged;
Nor yet of trouble and alarms:
     High Heaven is my defence;
And every season has soft arms
     For injured Innocence.

"From Moscow to the Wilderness
     It was my choice to come,
Lest virtue should be harborless,
     And honor want a home;
And happy were I, if the Czar
     Retain his lawless will,
To end life here like this poor deer,
     Or a lamb on a green hill."

"Are you the Maid," the Stranger cried,
     "From Gallic parents sprung,
Whose vanishing was rumored wide,
     Sad theme for every tongue;
Who foiled an Emperor`s eager quest?
     You, Lady, forced to wear
These rude habiliments, and rest
     Your head in this dark lair!"

But wonder, pity, soon were quelled;
     And in her face and mien
The soul`s pure brightness she beheld
     Without a veil between:
He loved, he hoped,—-a holy flame
     Kindled `mid rapturous tears;
The passion of a moment came
     As on the wings of years.

"Such bounty is no gift of chance,"
     Exclaimed he; "righteous Heaven,
Preparing your deliverance,
     To me the charge hath given.
The Czar full oft in words, and deeds
     Is stormy and self-willed;
But, when the Lady Catherine pleads,
     His violence is stilled.

"Leave open to my wish the course,
     And I to her will go;
From that humane and heavenly source,
     Good, only good, can flow.``
Faint sanction given, the Cavalier
     Was eager to depart,
Though question followed question, dear
     To the Maiden`s filial heart.

Light was his step,—-his hopes, more light,
     Kept pace with his desires;
And the fifth morning gave him sight
     Of Moscow`s glittering spires.
He sued:—-heart-smitten by the wrong,
     To the lorn Fugitive
The Emperor sent a pledge as strong
     As sovereign power could give.

O more than mighty change! If e`er
     Amazement rose to pain,
And joy`s excess produced a fear
     Of something void and vain;
`Twas when the Parents, who had mourned
     So long the lost as dead,
Beheld their only Child returned,
     The household floor to tread.

Soon gratitude gave way to love
     Within the Maiden`s breast:
Delivered and Deliverer move
     In bridal garments drest;
Meek Catherine had her own reward;
     The Czar bestowed a dower;
And universal Moscow shared
     The triumph of that hour.


Flowers strewed the ground; the nuptial feast
     Was held with costly state;
And there, `mid many a noble guest,
     The foster-parent sate;
Encouraged by the imperial eye,
     They shrank not into shade;
Great as their bliss, the honor high
     To them and nature paid!
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