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| WHEN Alcuin taught the sons of Charlemagne, | |
| In the free schools of Aix, how kings should reign, | |
| And with them taught the children of the poor | |
| How subjects should be patient and endure, | |
| He touched the lips of some, as best befit, | 5 |
| With honey from the hives of Holy Writ; | |
| Others intoxicated with the wine | |
| Of ancient history, sweet but less divine; | |
| Some with the wholesome fruits of grammar fed; | |
| Others with mysteries of the stars o’erhead, | 10 |
| That hang suspended in the vaulted sky | |
| Like lamps in some fair palace vast and high. | |
| |
| In sooth, it was a pleasant sight to see | |
| That Saxon monk, with hood and rosary, | |
| With inkhorn at his belt, and pen and book, | 15 |
| And mingled love and reverence in his look, | |
| Or hear the cloister and the court repeat | |
| The measured footfalls of his sandaled feet, | |
| Or watch him with the pupils of his school, | |
| Gentle of speech, but absolute of rule. | 20 |
| |
| Among them, always earliest in his place, | |
| Was Eginhard, a youth of Frankish race, | |
| Whose face was bright with flashes that forerun | |
| The splendors of a yet unrisen sun. | |
| To him all things were possible, and seemed | 25 |
| Not what he had accomplished, but had dreamed, | |
| And what were tasks to others were his play, | |
| The pastime of an idle holiday. | |
| |
| Smaragdo, Abbot of St. Michael’s, said, | |
| With many a shrug and shaking of the head, | 30 |
| Surely some demon must possess the lad, | |
| Who showed more wit than ever school-boy had, | |
| And learned his Trivium thus without the rod; | |
| But Alcuin said it was the grace of God. | |
| |
| Thus he grew up, in Logic point-device, | 35 |
| Perfect in Grammar, and in Rhetoric nice; | |
| Science of Numbers, Geometric art, | |
| And lore of Stars, and Music knew by heart; | |
| A Minnesinger, long before the times | |
| Of those who sang their love in Suabian rhymes. | 40 |
| |
| The Emperor, when he heard this good report | |
| Of Eginhard much buzzed about the court, | |
| Said to himself, “This stripling seems to be | |
| Purposely sent into the world for me; | |
| He shall become my scribe, and shall be schooled | 45 |
| In all the arts whereby the world is ruled.” | |
| Thus did the gentle Eginhard attain | |
| To honor in the court of Charlemagne; | |
| Became the sovereign’s favorite, his right hand, | |
| So that his fame was great in all the land, | 50 |
| And all men loved him for his modest grace | |
| And comeliness of figure and of face. | |
| An inmate of the palace, yet recluse, | |
| A man of books, yet sacred from abuse | |
| Among the armèd knights with spur on heel, | 55 |
| The tramp of horses and the clang of steel; | |
| And as the Emperor promised he was schooled | |
| In all the arts by which the world is ruled. | |
| But the one art supreme, whose law is fate, | |
| The Emperor never dreamed of till too late. | 60 |
| |
| Home from her convent to the palace came | |
| The lovely Princess Emma, whose sweet name, | |
| Whispered by seneschal or sung by bard, | |
| Had often touched the soul of Eginhard. | |
| He saw her from his window, as in state | 65 |
| She came, by knights attended through the gate; | |
| He saw her at the banquet of that day, | |
| Fresh as the morn, and beautiful as May; | |
| He saw her in the garden, as she strayed | |
| Among the flowers of summer with her maid, | 70 |
| And said to him, “O Eginhard, disclose | |
| The meaning and the mystery of the rose;” | |
| And trembling he made answer: “In good sooth, | |
| Its mystery is love, its meaning youth!” | |
| |
| How can I tell the signals and the signs | 75 |
| By which one heart another heart divines? | |
| How can I tell the many thousand ways | |
| By which it keeps the secret it betrays? | |
| |
| O mystery of love! O strange romance! | |
| Among the Peers and Paladins of France, | 80 |
| Shining in steel, and prancing on gay steeds, | |
| Noble by birth, yet nobler by great deeds, | |
| The Princess Emma had no words nor looks | |
| But for this clerk, this man of thought and books. | |
| |
| The summer passed, the autumn came; the stalks | 85 |
| Of lilies blackened in the garden walks; | |
| The leaves fell, russet-golden and blood-red, | |
| Love-letters thought the poet fancy-led, | |
| Or Jove descending in a shower of gold | |
| Into the lap of Danaë of old; | 90 |
| For poets cherish many a strange conceit, | |
| And love transmutes all nature by its heat. | |
| No more the garden lessons, nor the dark | |
| And hurried meetings in the twilight park; | |
| But now the studious lamp, and the delights | 95 |
| Of firesides in the silent winter nights, | |
| And watching from his window hour by hour | |
| The light that burned in Princess Emma’s tower. | |
| |
| At length one night, while musing by the fire, | |
| O’ercome at last by his insane desire,— | 100 |
| For what will reckless love not do and dare? | |
| He crossed the court, and climbed the winding stair, | |
| With some feigned message in the Emperor’s name; | |
| But when he to the lady’s presence came | |
| He knelt down at her feet, until she laid | 105 |
| Her hand upon him, like a naked blade, | |
| And whispered in his ear: “Arise, Sir Knight, | |
| To my heart’s level, O my heart’s delight.” | |
| |
| And there he lingered till the crowing cock, | |
| The Alectryon of the farmyard and the flock, | 110 |
| Sang his aubade with lusty voice and clear, | |
| To tell the sleeping world that dawn was near. | |
| And then they parted; but at parting, lo! | |
| They saw the palace courtyard white with snow, | |
| And, placid as a nun, the moon on high | 115 |
| Gazing from cloudy cloisters of the sky. | |
| “Alas!” he said, “how hide the fatal line | |
| Of footprints leading from thy door to mine, | |
| And none returning!” Ah, he little knew | |
| What woman’s wit, when put to proof, can do! | 120 |
| |
| That night the Emperor, sleepless with the cares | |
| And troubles that attend on state affairs, | |
| Had risen before the dawn, and musing gazed | |
| Into the silent night, as one amazed | |
| To see the calm that reigned o’er all supreme, | 125 |
| When his own reign was but a troubled dream. | |
| The moon lit up the gables capped with snow, | |
| And the white roofs, and half the court below, | |
| And he beheld a form, that seemed to cower | |
| Beneath a burden, come from Emma’s tower,— | 130 |
| A woman, who upon her shoulders bore | |
| Clerk Eginhard to his own private door, | |
| And then returned in haste, but still essayed | |
| To tread the footprints she herself had made; | |
| And as she passed across the lighted space, | 135 |
| The Emperor saw his daughter Emma’s face! | |
| |
| He started not; he did not speak or moan, | |
| But seemed as one who hath been turned to stone; | |
| And stood there like a statue, nor awoke | |
| Out of his trance of pain, till morning broke, | 140 |
| Till the stars faded, and the moon went down, | |
| And o’er the towers and steeples of the town | |
| Came the gray daylight; then the sun, who took | |
| The empire of the world with sovereign look, | |
| Suffusing with a soft and golden glow | 145 |
| All the dead landscape in its shroud of snow, | |
| Touching with flame the tapering chapel spires, | |
| Windows and roofs, and smoke of household fires, | |
| And kindling park and palace as he came; | |
| The stork’s nest on the chimney seemed in flame. | 150 |
| And thus he stood till Eginhard appeared, | |
| Demure and modest with his comely beard | |
| And flowing flaxen tresses, come to ask, | |
| As was his wont, the day’s appointed task. | |
| The Emperor looked upon him with a smile, | 155 |
| And gently said: “My son, wait yet awhile; | |
| This hour my council meets upon some great | |
| And very urgent business of the state. | |
| Come back within the hour. On thy return | |
| The work appointed for thee shalt thou learn.” | 160 |
| |
| Having dismissed this gallant Troubadour, | |
| He summoned straight his council, and secure | |
| And steadfast in his purpose, from the throne | |
| All the adventure of the night made known; | |
| Then asked for sentence; and with eager breath | 165 |
| Some answered banishment, and others death. | |
| |
| Then spake the king: “Your sentence is not mine; | |
| Life is the gift of God, and is divine; | |
| Nor from these palace walls shall one depart | |
| Who carries such a secret in his heart; | 170 |
| My better judgment points another way. | |
| Good Alcuin, I remember how one day | |
| When my Pepino asked you, ‘What are men?’ | |
| You wrote upon his tablets with your pen, | |
| ‘Guests of the grave and travellers that pass!’ | 175 |
| This being true of all men, we, alas! | |
| Being all fashioned of the selfsame dust, | |
| Let us be merciful as well as just; | |
| This passing traveller who hath stolen away | |
| The brightest jewel of my crown to-day, | 180 |
| Shall of himself the precious gem restore; | |
| By giving it, I make it mine once more. | |
| Over those fatal footprints I will throw | |
| My ermine mantle like another snow.” | |
| |
| Then Eginhard was summoned to the hall, | 185 |
| And entered, and in presence of them all, | |
| The Emperor said: “My son, for thou to me | |
| Hast been a son, and evermore shalt be, | |
| Long hast thou served thy sovereign, and thy zeal | |
| Pleads to me with importunate appeal, | 190 |
| While I have been forgetful to requite | |
| Thy service and affection as was right. | |
| But now the hour is come, when I, thy Lord, | |
| Will crown thy love with such supreme reward, | |
| A gift so precious kings have striven in vain | 195 |
| To win it from the hands of Charlemagne.” | |
| |
| Then sprang the portals of the chamber wide, | |
| And Princess Emma entered, in the pride | |
| Of birth and beauty, that in part o’ercame | |
| The conscious terror and the blush of shame. | 200 |
| And the good Emperor rose up from his throne, | |
| And taking her white hand within his own | |
| Placed it in Eginhard’s, and said: “My son, | |
| This is the gift thy constant zeal hath won; | |
| Thus I repay the royal debt I owe, | 205 |
| And cover up the footprints in the snow.” | |
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