'And thou must make a trooper tough and hack thy way to power— 'Belike they will raise thee to Ressaldar when I am hanged in Peshawur.' They have looked each other between the eyes, and there they found no fault, They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on leavened bread and salt: They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on fire and fresh-cut sod, On the hilt and the haft of the Khyber knife, and the Wondrous Names of God. The Colonel's son he rides the mare and Kamal's boy the dun, And two have come back to Fort Bukloh where there went forth but one. And when they drew to the Quarter-Guard, full twenty swords flew clear There was not a man but carried his feud with the blood of the mountaineer. 'Ha' done! ha' done!' said the Colonel's son. 'Put up the steel at your sides! 'Last night ye had struck at a Border thief-tonight 'tis a man of the Guides!' Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth. THE LAST SUTTEE Not many years ago a King died in one of the Rajpoot States. His wives, disregarding the orders of the English against suttee, would have broken out of the palace had not the gates been barred. But one of them, disguised as the King's favourite dancing-girl, passed through the line of guards and reached the pyre. There, her courage failing, she prayed her cousin, a baron of the court, to kill her. This he did, not knowing who she was. UDAI CHAND lay sick to death In his hold by Gungra hill. All night we heard the death-gongs ring All night the barons came and went, That clinked in the palace yard. In the Golden room on the palace roof All night he fought for air: And there was sobbing behind the screen, He passed at dawn-the death-fire leaped From the Malwa plains to the Abu scaurs: When they knew that the King was dead. The dumb priest knelt to tie his mouth The Boondi Queen beneath us cried: We drove the great gates home apace: But ere the rush of the unseen feet Had reached the turn to the open street, The bars shot down, the guard-drum beat- A face looked down in the gathering day, 'For I ruled the King as ne'er did Queen,"To-night the Queens rule me! 'Guard them safely, but let me go, 'Or ever they pay the debt they owe 'In scourge and torture!' She leaped below, And the grim guard watched her flee. They knew that the King had spent his soul That he prayed to a flat-nosed Lucknow god, And swore by her lightest curl. |