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PRINCE HENRY and ELSIE crossing with attendants.
GUIDE. THIS bridge is called the Devil’s Bridge. | |
| With a single arch, from ridge to ridge, | |
| It leaps across the terrible chasm | |
| Yawning beneath us, black and deep, | |
| As if, in some convulsive spasm, | 5 |
| The summits of the hills had cracked, | |
| And made a road for the cataract | |
| That raves and rages down the steep! | |
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LUCIFER, under the bridge. Ha! ha! | |
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GUIDE. Never any bridge but this | 10 |
| Could stand across the wild abyss; | |
| All the rest, of wood or stone, | |
| By the Devil’s hand were overthrown. | |
| He toppled crags from the precipice, | |
| And whatsoe’er was built by day | 15 |
| In the night was swept away; | |
| None could stand but this alone. | |
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LUCIFER, under the bridge. Ha! ha! | |
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GUIDE. I showed you in the valley a bowlder | |
| Marked with the imprint of his shoulder; | 20 |
| As he was bearing it up this way, | |
| A peasant, passing, cried, “Herr Jé!” | |
| And the Devil dropped it in his fright, | |
| And vanished suddenly out of sight! | |
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LUCIFER, under the bridge. Ha! ha! | 25 |
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GUIDE. Abbot Giraldus of Einsiedel, | |
| For pilgrims on their way to Rome, | |
| Built this at last, with a single arch, | |
| Under which, on its endless march, | |
| Runs the river, white with foam, | 30 |
| Like a thread through the eye of a needle | |
| And the Devil promised to let it stand, | |
| Under compact and condition | |
| That the first living thing which crossed | |
| Should be surrendered into his hand, | 35 |
| And be beyond redemption lost. | |
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LUCIFER, under the bridge. Ha! ha! perdition! | |
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GUIDE. At length, the bridge being all completed, | |
| The Abbot, standing at its head, | |
| Threw across it a loaf of bread, | 40 |
| Which a hungry dog sprang after, | |
| And the rocks reëchoed with the peals of laughter | |
| To see the Devil thus defeated! They pass on. | |
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LUCIFER, under the bridge. Ha! ha! defeated! | |
| For journeys and for crimes like this | 45 |
| I let the bridge stand o’er the abyss! | |
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