Your
messengers
were all checked like myself;
And, seeing the case hopeless, I await
The current's pleasure.
And, seeing the case hopeless, I await
The current's pleasure.
Byron
_Stral. _ Better in rest than purse:
Mine inn is like to cost me dear.
_Gab. _ I heard
Of your late loss; but 'tis a trifle to
One of your order.
_Stral. _ You would hardly think so,
Were the loss yours.
_Gab. _ I never had so much
(At once) in my whole life, and therefore am not
Fit to decide. But I came here to seek you.
Your couriers are turned back--I have outstripped them,
In my return.
_Stral. _ You! --Why?
_Gab. _ I went at daybreak, 310
To watch for the abatement of the river,
As being anxious to resume my journey.
Your messengers were all checked like myself;
And, seeing the case hopeless, I await
The current's pleasure.
_Stral. _ Would the dogs were in it!
Why did they not, at least, attempt the passage?
I ordered this at all risks.
_Gab. _ Could you order
The Oder to divide, as Moses did
The Red Sea (scarcely redder than the flood
Of the swoln stream), and be obeyed, perhaps 320
They might have ventured.
_Stral. _ I must see to it:
The knaves! the slaves! --but they shall smart for this.
[_Exit_ STRALENHEIM.
_Gab. _ (_solus_). There goes my noble, feudal, self-willed Baron!
Epitome of what brave chivalry
The preux Chevaliers of the good old times
Have left us.
