| |
| CHAINED in the market-place he stood, | |
| A man of giant frame, | |
| Amid the gathering multitude | |
| That shrunk to hear his name,— | |
| All stern of look and strong of limb, | 5 |
| His dark eye on the ground; | |
| And silently they gazed on him, | |
| As on a lion bound. | |
| |
| Vainly, but well, that chief had fought, | |
| He was a captive now; | 10 |
| Yet pride, that fortune humbles not, | |
| Was written on his brow. | |
| The scars his dark broad bosom wore | |
| Showed warrior true and brave; | |
| A prince among his tribe before, | 15 |
| He could not be a slave. | |
| |
| Then to his conqueror he spake: | |
| “My brother is a king; | |
| Undo this necklace from my neck, | |
| And take this bracelet ring, | 20 |
| And send me where my brother reigns, | |
| And I will fill thy hands | |
| With store of ivory from the plains, | |
| And gold-dust from the sands.” | |
| |
| “Not for thy ivory nor thy gold | 25 |
| Will I unbind thy chain; | |
| That bloody hand shall never hold | |
| The battle-spear again. | |
| A price thy nation never gave | |
| Shall yet be paid for thee; | 30 |
| For thou shalt be the Christian’s slave, | |
| In lands beyond the sea.” | |
| |
| Then wept the warrior chief, and bade | |
| To shred his locks away; | |
| And, one by one, each heavy braid | 35 |
| Before the victor lay. | |
| Thick were the platted locks, and long, | |
| And closely hidden there | |
| Shone many a wedge of gold among | |
| The dark and crispéd hair. | 40 |
| |
| “Look, feast thy greedy eye with gold | |
| Long kept for sorest need; | |
| Take it,—thou askest sums untold, | |
| And say that I am freed. | |
| Take it,—my wife, the long, long day, | 45 |
| Weeps by the cocoa tree, | |
| And my young children leave their play, | |
| And ask in vain for me.” | |
| |
| “I take thy gold,—but I have made | |
| Thy fetters fast and strong, | 50 |
| And ween that by the cocoa shade | |
| Thy wife will wait thee long.” | |
| Strong was the agony that shook | |
| The captive’s frame to hear, | |
| And the proud meaning of his look | 55 |
| Was changed to mortal fear. | |
| |
| His heart was broken—crazed his brain: | |
| At once his eye grew wild; | |
| He struggled fiercely with his chain, | |
| Whispered, and wept, and smiled; | 60 |
| Yet wore not long those fatal bands, | |
| And once, at shut of day, | |
| They drew him forth upon the sands, | |
| The foul hyena’s prey. | |
| |
