"
Then Pharaoh leaned down toward her: "0 most beautiful!" he said,
"There is not a man who liveth dare say so to my face;
And truly were there such a one 'twere better he were dead,
For dead men suffer nothing.--Yet I pray thee of thy grace
"Have patience now to hear me. 'Tis as the Ethiope heard.
They threatened all the first-born;--but the tower is brass and stone;
There my son shall stay to-night, guarded well, I give thee word.--
Where armies could not enter--can one angel pass alone?
"Thinkst thou that I am one to be affrighted by the dark?
A weakling to be played upon--a coward or a fool?
Nay!--I defy the Israelites!--Their weapons miss their mark,
They have roused my utmost anger: it taketh long to cool.
"But thou!" he said; "but thou! Methinks had they but threatened thee
I should perchance have known the very quality of fear;--
Thou thing of perfect loveliness! Content mine eyes will be
Though in the land of Egypt is no blossom for a year.
"But thou art queen, and thou art free;--free now to go or stay,
I would not bind thee to my side--not by one golden hair.--
Leave thou this land of peril e'er the breaking of the day,
Or give thy life to my dark life--and bear what it doth bear.
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