I.

Federigo, the son of the Marquis,

Downcast, through the garden goes:

He is hurt with the grace of the lily,

And the beauty of the rose.

For what is the grace of the lily

But her own slender grace?

And what is the rose’s beauty

But the beauty of her face?––

Who sits beside her window

Waiting to welcome him,

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That comes so lothly toward her

With his visage sick and dim.

“Ah! lily, I come to break thee!

Ah! rose, a bitter rain

Of tears shall beat thy light out

That thou never burn again!”

II.

Federigo, the son of the Marquis,

Takes the lady by the hand:

“Thou must bid me God-speed on a journey,

For I leave my native land.

“From Mantua to-morrow

I go, a banished man;

Make me glad for truth and love’s sake

Of my father’s curse and ban.

“Our quarrel has left my mother

Like death upon the floor;

And I come from a furious presence

I never shall enter more.

“I would not wed the woman

He had chosen for my bride,

For my heart had been before him,

With his statecraft and his pride.

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“I swore to him by my princehood

In my love I would be free;

And I swear to thee by my manhood,

I love no one but thee.

“Let the Duke of Bavaria marry

His daughter to whom he will:

There where my love was given

My word shall be faithful still.

“There are six true hearts will follow

My truth wherever I go,

And thou equal truth wilt keep me

In welfare and in woe.”

The maiden answered him nothing

Of herself, but his words again

Came back through her lips like an echo

From an abyss of pain;

And vacantly repeating

“In welfare and in woe,”

Like a dream from the heart of fever

From her arms she felt him go.

III.

Out of Mantua’s gate at daybreak

Seven comrades wander forth

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On a path that leads at their humor,

East, west, or south, or north.

The prince’s laugh rings lightly,

“What road shall we take from home?”

And they answer, “We never shall lose it

If we take the road to Rome.”

And with many a jest and banter

The comrades keep their way,

Journeying out of the twilight

Forward into the day,

When they are aware beside them

Goes a pretty minstrel lad,

With a shy and downward aspect,

That is neither sad nor glad.

Over his slender shoulder,

His mandolin was slung,

And around its chords the treasure

Of his golden tresses hung.

Spoke one of the seven companions,

“Little minstrel, whither away?”––

“With seven true-hearted comrades

On their journey, if I may.”

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Spoke one of the seven companions,

“If our way be hard and long?”––

“I will lighten it with my music

And shorten it with my song.”

Spoke one of the seven companions,

“But what are the songs thou know’st?”––

“O, I know many a ditty,

But this I sing the most:

“How once was an humble maiden

Beloved of a great lord’s son,

That for her sake and his troth’s sake

Was banished and undone.

“And forth of his father’s city

He went at break of day,

And the maiden softly followed

Behind him on the way

“In the figure of a minstrel,

And prayed him of his love,

‘Let me go with thee and serve thee

Wherever thou may’st rove.

“‘For if thou goest in exile

I rest banished at home,

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And where thou wanderest with thee

My fears in anguish roam,

“‘Besetting thy path with perils,

Making thee hungry and cold,

Filling thy heart with trouble

And heaviness untold.

“‘But let me go beside thee,

And banishment shall be

Honor, and riches, and country,

And home to thee and me!’”

Down falls the minstrel-maiden

Before the Marquis’ son,

And the six true-hearted comrades

Bow round them every one.

Federigo, the son of the Marquis,

From its scabbard draws his sword:

“Now swear by the honor and fealty

Ye bear your friend and lord,

“That whenever, and wherever,

As long as ye have life,

Ye will honor and serve this lady

As ye would your prince’s wife!”

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IV.

Over the broad expanses

Of garlanded Lombardy,

Where the gentle vines are swinging

In the orchards from tree to tree;

Through Padua from Verona,

From the sculptured gothic town,

Carved from ruin upon ruin,

And ancienter than renown;

Through Padua from Verona

To fair Venice, where she stands

With her feet on subject waters,

Lady of many lands;

From Venice by sea to Ancona;

From Ancona to the west;

Climbing many a gardened hillside

And many a castled crest;

Through valleys dim with the twilight

Of their gray olive trees;

Over plains that swim with harvests

Like golden noonday seas;

Whence the lofty campanili

Like the masts of ships arise,

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And like a fleet at anchor

Under them, the village lies;

To Florence beside her Arno,

In her many-marbled pride,

Crowned with infamy and glory

By the sons she has denied;

To pitiless Pisa, where never

Since the anguish of Ugolin

The moon in the Tower of Famine[3]

Fate so dread as his hath seen;

Out through the gates of Pisa

To Livorno on her bay,

To Genoa and to Naples

The comrades hold their way,

Past the Guelph in his town beleaguered,

Past the fortressed Ghibelline,

Through lands that reek with slaughter,

Treason, and shame, and sin;

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By desert, by sea, by city,

High hill-cope and temple-dome,

Through pestilence, hunger, and horror,

Upon the road to Rome;

While every land behind them

Forgets them as they go,

And in Mantua they are remembered

As is the last year’s snow;

But the Marchioness goes to her chamber

Day after day to weep,––

For the changeless heart of a mother

The love of a son must keep.

The Marchioness weeps in her chamber

Over tidings that come to her

Of the exiles she seeks, by letter

And by lips of messenger,

Broken hints of their sojourn and absence,

Comfortless, vague, and slight,––

Like feathers wafted backwards

From passage birds in flight.[4]

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The tale of a drunken sailor,

In whose ship they went to sea;

A traveller’s evening story

At a village hostelry,

Of certain comrades sent him

By our Lady, of her grace,

To save his life from robbers

In a lonely desert place;

Word from the monks of a convent

Of gentle comrades that lay

One stormy night at their convent,

And passed with the storm at day;

The long parley of a peasant

That sold them wine and food,

The gossip of a shepherd

That guided them through a wood;

A boatman’s talk at the ferry

Of a river where they crossed,

And as if they had sunk in the current

All trace of them was lost;

And so is an end of tidings

But never an end of tears,

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Of secret and friendless sorrow

Through blank and silent years.

V.

To the Marchioness in her chamber

Sends word a messenger,

Newly come from the land of Naples,

Praying for speech with her.

The messenger stands before her,

A minstrel slender and wan:

“In a village of my country

Lies a Mantuan gentleman,

“Sick of a smouldering fever,

Of sorrow and poverty;

And no one in all that country

Knows his title or degree.

“But six true Mantuan peasants,

Or nobles, as some men say,

Watch by the sick man’s bedside,

And toil for him, night and day,

“Hewing, digging, reaping, sowing,

Bearing burdens, and far and nigh

Begging for him on the highway

Of the strangers that pass by;

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“And they look whenever you meet them

Like broken-hearted men,

And I heard that the sick man would not

If he could, be well again;

“For they say that he for love’s sake

Was gladly banishÈd,

But she for whom he was banished

Is worse to him, now, than dead,––

“A recreant to his sorrow,

A traitress to his woe.”

From her place the Marchioness rises,

The minstrel turns to go.

But fast by the hand she takes him,––

His hand in her clasp is cold,––

“If gold may be thy guerdon

Thou shalt not lack for gold;

“And if the love of a mother

Can bless thee for that thou hast done,

Thou shalt stay and be his brother,

Thou shalt stay and be my son.”

“Nay, my lady,” answered the minstrel,

And his face is deadly pale,

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“Nay, this must not be, sweet lady,

But let my words prevail.

“Let me go now from your presence,

And I will come again,

When you stand with your son beside you,

And be your servant then.”

VI.

At the feet of the Marquis Gonzaga

Kneels his lady on the floor;

“Lord, grant me before I ask it

The thing that I implore.”

“So it be not of that ingrate.”––

“Nay, lord, it is of him.”

’Neath the stormy brows of the Marquis

His eyes are tender and dim.

“He lies sick of a fever in Naples,

Near unto death, as they tell,

In his need and pain forsaken

By the wanton he loved so well.

“Now send for him and forgive him,

If ever thou loved’st me,

Now send for him and forgive him

As God shall be good to thee.”

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“Well so,––if he turn in repentance

And bow himself to my will;

That the high-born lady I chose him

May be my daughter still.”

VII.

In Mantua there is feasting

For the Marquis’ grace to his son;

In Mantua there is rejoicing

For the prince come back to his own.

The pomp of a wedding procession

Pauses under the pillared porch,

With silken rustle and whisper,

Before the door of the church.

In the midst, Federigo the bridegroom

Stands with his high-born bride;

The six true-hearted comrades

Are three on either side.

The bridegroom is gray as his father,

Where they stand face to face,

And the six true-hearted comrades

Are like old men in their place.

The Marquis takes the comrades

And kisses them one by one:

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“That ye were fast and faithful

And better than I to my son,

“Ye shall be called forever,

In the sign that ye were so true,

The Faithful of the Gonzaga,

And your sons after you.”

VIII.

To the Marchioness comes a courtier:

“I am prayed to bring you word

That the minstrel keeps his promise

Who brought you news of my lord;

“And he waits without the circle

To kiss your highness’ hand;

And he asks no gold for guerdon,

But before he leaves the land

“He craves of your love once proffered

That you suffer him for reward,

In this crowning hour of his glory,

To look on your son, my lord.”

Through the silken press of the courtiers

The minstrel faltered in.

His claspÈd hands were bloodless,

His face was white and thin;

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And he bent his knee to the lady,

But of her love and grace

To her heart she raised him and kissed him

Upon his gentle face.

Turned to her son the bridegroom,

Turned to his high-born wife,

“I give you here for your brother

Who gave back my son to life.

“For this youth brought me news from Naples

How thou layest sick and poor,

By true comrades kept, and forsaken

By a false paramour.

“Wherefore I charge you love him

For a brother that is my son.”

The comrades turned to the bridegroom

In silence every one.

But the bridegroom looked on the minstrel

With a visage blank and changed,

As his whom the sight of a spectre

From his reason hath estranged;

And the smiling courtiers near them

On a sudden were still as death;

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And, subtly-stricken, the people

Hearkened and held their breath

With an awe uncomprehended

For an unseen agony:––

Who is this that lies a-dying,

With her head on the prince’s knee?

A light of anguish and wonder

Is in the prince’s eye,

“O, speak, sweet saint, and forgive me,

Or I cannot let thee die!

“For now I see thy hardness

Was softer than mortal ruth,

And thy heavenly guile was whiter,

My saint, than martyr’s truth.”

She speaks not and she moves not,

But a blessed brightness lies

On her lips in their silent rapture

And her tender closÈd eyes.

Federigo, the son of the Marquis,

He rises from his knee:

“Aye, you have been good, my father,

To them that were good to me.

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“You have given them honors and titles,

But here lies one unknown––

Ah, God reward her in heaven

With the peace he gives his own!”