Part 5 — DOUBLE ACROSTIC I.

How much the first the second doth excel. The student of the Bible knows full well. 1. Seek me through desert sands, ’mid treeless waste, And let the traveller cooling water taste. 2. For miles when tracked the river’s rippling light, Through willowy meads, past many a wooded height, Opens this lake’s calm beauty to the sight. 3. What is this light illuminating night? So clear, so perfect, so intense, so white. 4. Here sit the conquering lords, and here receive Their subjects’ homage or their woes relieve; And here assemble, for affairs of State, The dusky, jewelled chiefs in high debate. 5. A secret Brotherhood in virtue’s cause, Ruled by morality and reason’s laws; Yet governments are often most unjust, And ours looked on our meetings with distrust. The air was full of revolution’s fire, Men’s hearts were trembling with forebodings dire, And, from a terror deep but unconfessed, Our Brotherhood by edict was suppressed. 6. A stormy reign was mine; my father’s hand Gathered the strife-rent kingdoms of the land And held the reins; these cares devolved on me, While, in addition, from beyond the sea Adventurers came in swarms to claim my right, And many a furious battle did we fight. Little am I remembered now! My fame (If any) centres in my son’s high name, Who, student, warrior, legislator, rose Supreme o’er native chiefs and foreign foes. Peace shed her blessings where his footsteps came, And still his country cherishes his name. 7. An old French town, once fortified, whose name Looks very English, and it sounds the same; Before its walls in war, so histories tell, The wealthiest reigning prince in Europe fell. 8. A soft material, made for woman’s use, Named from the town whose looms the web produce. 9. One of three sisters, shedding kindly words With all the aid that sympathy affords; In youthful loveliness, their looks benign, With purest charity and kindness shine. Ximena.