FORGAEL.

(Going to the tiller.)

The pale hound and the deer wander forever Among the winds and waters; and when they pass The mountain of the gods, the unappeasable gods Cover their faces with their hair and weep.

They lure us to the streams where the world ends.

DECTORA.

All dies among those streams.

FORGAEL.

The fool has made

These messengers to lure men to his peace,
Where true love wanders among the holy woods.

DECTORA.

What were true love among the rush of his streams? The gods weave nets, and take us in their nets, And none knows wherefore; but the heart's desire Is this poor body that reddens and grows pale.

(She goes toward him.)

FORGAEL.

The fool, who has made the wisdom that men write Upon thin boards of yew and apple-wood,

And all that prophesying images

Made of dim gold rave out in secret tombs,

Has told me that the undying send their eagles

To snatch alive out of the streams all lovers

That have gone thither to look for the loud streams, Folding their hearts' desire to their glad hearts.

DECTORA.

The love I know is hidden in these hands

That I would mix with yours, and in this hair
That I would shed like twilight over you.

FORGAEL.

The love of all under the light of the sun
Is but brief longing, and deceiving hope,

'And bodily tenderness; but love is made
Imperishable fire under the boughs
Of chrysoberyl and beryl and chrysolite
'And chrysoprase and ruby and sardonyx.

DECTORA.

Where are these boughs? Where are the holy woods
That can change love to imperishable fire?

O! I would break this net the gods have woven

Of voices and of dreams. O heart, be still!

O why is love so crazy that it longs

To drown in its own image?

FORGAEL.

Even that sleep

That comes with love, comes murmuring of an hour
When earth and heaven have been folded up;
And languors that awake in mingling hands
And mingling hair fall from the fiery boughs,

To lead us to the streams where the world ends.

(Aibric and some of the sailors come from the other ship over the bulwark beyond the sail, and gather in the dimness beyond the sail.)

Give me your swords.

AIBRIC.

A SAILOR.

They are always quarrelling.

ANOTHER SAILOR.

It is the brown ale does it.

AIBRIC.

Give me your swords.

ANOTHER SAILOR.

We will not quarrel, now that all is well

'And we go home.

ANOTHER SAILOR.

Come, Aibric; end your tale

Of golden armed Aolan and the queen

That lives among the woods of the dark hounds.

ANOTHER SAILOR.

And tell how Mananan sacked Murias

Under the waves, and took a thousand women

When the dark hounds were loosed.

ANOTHER SAILOR.

Come to the ale.

1

(They go into the other ship.)

DECTORA.

(Going toward the sail.)

I have begun remembering my dreams.
I have commanded men in dreams. Beloved,
We will go call these sailors, and escape

The nets the gods have woven and our own hearts,
And, hurrying homeward, fall upon some land
And rule together under a canopy.

FORGAEL.

All that know love among the winds of the world
Have found it like the froth upon the ale.

DECTORA.

We will find out valleys and woods and meadows
To wander in; you have loved many women,

It may be, and have grown weary of love.

But I am new to love.

FORGAEL.

Go among these

That have known love among the winds of the world
And tell its story over their brown ale.

DECTORA.

(Going a little nearer to the sail.)

Love was not made for darkness and the winds
That blow when heaven and earth are withering,

For love is kind and happy. O come with me!
Look on this body and this heavy hair;
A stream has told me they are beautiful.
The gods hate happiness and weave their nets
Out of their hatred.

FORGAEL.

My beloved, farewell.

Seek Aibric on the Lochlann galley, and tell him
That Forgael has followed the gray birds alone,
And bid him to your country.

DECTORA.

I should wander

Amid the darkness, now that all my stars.
Have fallen and my sun and moon gone out.

FORGAEL.

I think that there is love in Aibric's eyes;

I know he will obey you; and if your eyes
Should look upon his eyes with love unto the end,
That would be happiest, for there is none
So worthy among men.

DECTORA.

I follow you,

Whether among the cold winds of the dead,

Or among winds that move in the meadows and woods.
I have cut the cords that held this galley to ours.
She is already fading, as though the gods

Had woven her of wind.

(She throws herself at Forgael's feet.)
Life withers out.

I hide you with my hair, that we may gaze
Upon this world no longer.

(The harp begins to murmur of itself.)

FORGAEL.

The harp cries out.

It has begun to cry out to the eagles.

THE END.

THE FUTURE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.

BY CHARLES SYDNEY CLARK.

AMONG the most peculiar products of our system of government are the military forces which, while locally known as State Troops, National Guard, Volunteer Militia, Militia, and Volunteer Guard, are generally known, as a whole, as the "National Guard." This mass of forces is confessedly not a part of the Regular Army, nor, although it is composed wholly of volunteers, is it a Volunteer Army. Nor is it the United States "Militia" of the Constitution and Revised Statutes, for it is not organized, officered, drilled or equipped in the manner provided by statute; it is not a United States force; and never has been, and never will be, called into the service of the United States as "Militia." Within two years, the legal advisers of the Government have advised the President that his authority to call out the National Guard for service, as "Militia," must be questioned, and that it would be prudent for him to obtain authority from Congress to organize a Volunteer Army.

What, then, is the status of the National Guard? It is a new force, the existence of which was never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, or the Congress which enacted the "Militia" law, but which is, nevertheless, the "well-organized militia" which Washington contemplated. The assumption that the Guard is a new force at once removes the difficulties in the way of "reorganizing the Militia," with which Presidents, Committees of Congress, statesmen and lawyers have labored for a century. For, if it be a new force, it is not impossible for Congress to create an entirely new Volunteer Army which shall be the Guard reorganized and modified, to provide for the support thereof, and to make laws for its government and regulation.

There is not only law but ample precedent for such action. The