No, no! where the ivy now clusters there grew strong
portcullis and bars of steel; where the wallflower now quivers in the
rampart there were silken banners embroidered with wonderful heraldry;
men-at-arms marched where now you shall only see a bank of moss or a
hideous black champignon; and in place of the rats and owlets, I warrant
me there were ladies and knights to revel in the great halls, and
to feast, and to dance, and to make love there. They are passed
away:--those old knights and ladies: their golden hair first changed to
silver, and then the silver dropped off and disappeared for ever; their
elegant legs, so slim and active in the dance, became swollen and
gouty, and then, from being swollen and gouty, dwindled down to
bare bone-shanks; the roses left their cheeks, and then their cheeks
disappeared, and left their skulls, and then their skulls powdered into
dust, and all sign of them was gone. And as it was with them, so shall
it be with us. Ho, seneschal! fill me a cup of liquor! put sugar in it,
good fellow--yea, and a little hot water; a very little, for my soul is
sad, as I think of those days and knights of old.
They, too, have revelled and feasted, and where are they?--gone?--nay,
not altogether gone; for doth not the eye catch glimpses of them as they
walk yonder in the gray limbo of romance, shining faintly in their coats
of steel, wandering by the side of long-haired ladies, with long-tailed
gowns that little pages carry? Yes! one sees them: the poet sees them
still in the far-off Cloudland, and hears the ring of their clarions
as they hasten to battle or tourney--and the dim echoes of their lutes
chanting of love and fair ladies! Gracious privilege of poesy! It is as
the Dervish's collyrium to the eyes, and causes them to see treasures
that to the sight of donkeys are invisible.
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