Pages 164-167
IVAN THE CZAR.*[1]
BY MRS. HEMANS.
He sat in silence on the ground,
The old and haughty Czar;
Lonely, though princes girt him round,
And leaders of the war:
He had cast his jewelled sabre,
That many a field had won
To the earth beside his youthful dead,
His fair and first-born son.
With a robe of ermine for its bed,
Was laid that form of clay,
Where the light a stormy sunset shed,
Through the rich tent made way:
- ↑ * Ivan le Terrible, etant deja devenu Vieux, assiegoit Novogorod. Les Boyards, le voyant affoibli, lui demanderent s'il ne voulait pas donner le commandement de l'assaut a son fils. Sa fureur fut si grande a cette proposition, que rien ne put l'apaiser: son fils se prosterna a ses pieds; il le repousa avec un coup d'une telle violence, que deux jours apres le malbeureux en mourut. Le pere, alors au desespoir, devint indifferent a la guerre comme au pouvoir, et ne survecut que peu de mois a son fils. Dix Annees d'Exil, par Mad. de Stael.
