366
மயிலை சீனி. வேங்கடசாமி ஆய்வுக்களஞ்சியம் - 20
Yet oft revolved - as some pale hope deferred,
Seen indistinct in rearward depths of time Flashed as, when looked for least,
Thro' the rent cloud of battle flashes triumph.
And. reasoning with himself, 'the Mede', he said 'Recks not who sits upon the Scythian throne,
604
So that the ruler pay
Grains of waste soil and drops of useless water:
608
And if I render up an easy prey
The senseless king refusing terms so mild,
For such great service done
And for my rank among the Scythian riders,
612
'The Mede would deem no man so fit as I
To fill the throne; whose heir he scorned as wife, And yield him dust and drops,
Holding the fealmS.and treasures of Omartes.'
616
So, when the next day's sun began to slope,
The traitor stood before Zariades,
Gaining the hostile camp
From the mute grave.mound of his Scythian fathers.
620
Plain as his simplest soldier's was the tent
Wherein the lord of half the Orient sate,
Alone in anxious thought,
Intent on new device to quicken conquest.
624
But for the single sapphire in his helm,
And near his hand the regal silver urn,
Filled with the sparkling lymph,
Which, whatsoe'er the distance, pure Choaspes
628
Sends to the lips of Achaemenian kings,
The Asian ruler might to Spartan eyes
Have seemed the hardy type
Of Europe's manhood crowned in Lacedaemon.
632
