Page:The Bengali Book of English Verse.djvu/56

And Tirdi Beg, the veteran chief,
Among the troop was found,
The king accosted him by name,
But looked he not around;
He plied amain his blood-stained spurs
And passed his lord with speed,—
Thus e'er the cringing race behave
When most their aid we need.

'Is it for this that from thy youth
I reared thee in my hall,
And favours heaped on thee and thine
From which ye feared no fall?
Is this the guerdon of my love
So equable and true?
This night, ungrateful Tirdi Beg,
This night thou'lt dearly rue.'

'Ho! Tirdi Beg,' brave Koka cried,
'Death light upon thy head,
Dost thou desert at utmost need
Him at whose board thou'st fed?
The flashing brand that's in my hand
Shall cleave thy skull in twain,
If e'er upon the tented field
I meet thee once again.'

'My lord, my king, accept I pray
A subject's preferred love,
Who, though despised at camp and court,
Disloyal ne'er shall prove;
The steed that bore my mother safe,
Is at my king's command,
And she upon a camel fleet
Shall cross the sea of sand.