Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-12-16

Buy my roses. senorita, you senior, you
fair Inglees maiden:
Not Ike the mountain rose. with perfume
laden:
Only tame roses with the morning blush
gone,
Like wild zingareIla, whose lover has
flown.
What q my name?
Wild Zingarella.
Daughter of the Nevadas. am 1 called.
Where was ] born?
Aloft and beyond the eagles nest.
Far up in yon Sierra Nevadas.
My childhood was a wildcat life.
From early morn until the stars shone
DER the Mediterranean,
! nothing did but laugh and sing and
dance with
My wild, gypsy-belled tambourine and
Defiance in me face Of death and swing
Far out from cliffs and mountain peaks,
Where sea-gulls build and wildcats
shrek;
shrieks that my wild heart loved to hear;
Nor dreamed OF such thing as fear.
Fear?
Climbing TO where the sierras EFT
Their snow-draped foreheads against the
Skies
Then swing Off and down on a swift snow
drift.
To where the summer queen reigns and
the ice-kng dies.
Fear?
Hunting. the leopard in dark. sunless
glades.
Whipping the tiger with my wildcat
braids,
Midst the innermost dangers that beset
gypsy tribes.
Whose life IS but strife. and whose law
is the knife.
There was ! born.
| There lived !:
Then Don Jose came-he of the Sierra
MOrera tribe
| And camped near the grape-hills OF old
Malaga;
Wild Zingarella, fawned even at his feet.
But. O! when love is not returned.
| Meeting with looks but sternly kind;
| 1t turns the heart to fire. then ashes,
| And makes a ghost-waik of the mind.
In the kingly majesty of Don Jose's pres
cnce.
l stood as one entranced. bewildered. yet
Joyously amazed at my too-fond hearts
Bewilderment; aye. as brokenwInged
bird,
nuttered at his feet.
Then Egypta came. she Of the proud Cor
And canlrcI n the slopes above the roar
Of the S"A:
Egypta caro-. and dared to come between
my love and me.
She stood before my king. my idol, my
adOred: with
Imperious brow and hooking airs. she
dared TO stand
| Before him; with her enchanting, snaky
eyes aglow,
Unabashed. defiant, and unawed she
And. and and Don Jose's heart and
o. cannot, cannot. tel the rest;
There, at the foot of yOn mountain pass,
Don Jose met Egypta.
| There she stole my lover from me-
There she Dalmed her faith into his soul;
| She pTaCticed on Don Joses palms, and
His fate as foreordained with hers.
| She forged him tales Of their twin desti-
MES
TIL Joses soul was at her feet,
| His very thought her slave:
| Thus wooed they.
One dark and starless, storm-portending
night
| Sought fOrgetfulness in the mountains.
| Sought In vain to cool my feverish. burn
ing blood
A sudden flame Of lightning startled me.
My soul with a sense that had wander
| ed too near
| The purple cliffs of Malaga, too near the
| spot | hated most.
| And uyaved TO keep most distant from.
My Zhock, my faithful Afric lion. my
Faithful lover. and trusty. true. and only
| friend,
NV faithful Zhock-
| Whose native fierce and fiery nature
| Now most ike my own-was at my side.
| Thrice as we moved along the slope.
| Had Zhock growled hard, and snapped his
| eittcring teeth
| And crouched. as 'twere to spring.
| And thrice had /, as flercely, yet more 81
| lentlv,
Warned him back and down.
| But when 1 heard Egypta's cursed kiss,
| And saw her snaky, coiling arms around
And heard him swear by Egypta's gods
4 That he was hers alone
| "Sic. sic upon them, Zhock'' l cried.
| With all my wildcat nature.
| Boiling. seething Kissing hot,
| Through all my veins,
| Kissing through my lips and brain,
"Sic. sic upon them, Zhock!' / cried
| And urged my Afric lion on.
| The thunderous heavens now stormed,
| And lightning was flashed,
| Rut storm nor thunder peals were aught
| To the roar OF my kingly lion,
| Or the flashing, blazing eyes OF that de-
| FAINT God-lil;e man.
| Don Jose's long stletto flashed athwart
| The lightnings lurid CLEANS.
| Thus armed, he stood covering EGypta
| with his left,
| His right. well-sinewed arm,
| Upheld and daggered.
| Thus armed. he stood sternly,
| Waiting the attack.
| Zhock sorang and bore Don Jose 70 the
| ground
Back zhock, back zhock! back to thy
| mistress-back"
| In vain ] cried, | cried In vain
| Through the glare of the storm.
10. Egypta has seized Don Jose's dirk,
| Quickly it falls across my Afric lions
zhock reluctantly releases his weakened
And sncaks away with hurt. blood-blinded
Now Don Jose and Egypta fly toward the
Thank Heaven, they reach the cliff, now
| disappear
"IIelpl Why. Zhock, how YOU startle me;
| why, Zhock. how you glare; how you
| stare.
Down! Shame shame?'-Ha, know now
Hungry o' With the taste of Don Jose's
My Afric lion now returns, eager for
| mine own.
| Where shall / fee?
"Back down! sic upon them, Zhock,
| Wonder. Zhock, down by the sea.
| Zhock, how dare you? Peace, Zhock!
| / am wild Zingarella, thy mistress, fair
| boy, -,
| Down, back, away: down. down.!
| / feel his thOrny claws around my neck,
| His hot breath on my throat:
| Thrice with my stiletto do cut the mon
ster down.
| backward toward the cliffs or Malaga
| / fight my horrible way.
I near the cliffs. keeping the frenzied
beast at bay
| RaclSwardly fighting, parrying. eVading
| with supernatural strength, | hold
The treacherous wretch at bay.
At length I reach the cliffs.
Svice, thrice. my good steel pierces
| The raging, foaming Hons side.
| rhen. with q prayer TO the Christians
God Al,
7 nlunge far down in the roaring tide.
| Zbock's eyes like cracking gypsy camp
| fires shine. A.,
Or as twin danger-signals out on th'
| with n roar Of rage. far out he leaps:
| Iut the Christians God was kind TO me
| For cen as Zhock sprang some hunters
gun spake, ~, $500,
And Zhock from the sea VIII never
| awake.
,rba, was the day my wild spirit fed.
| See these roses bear the stains
of the deep wounds which bled.
oft nv brain grows Wild and my tams
body shrinks ,-,.
| Meath the terrible glare or Knocks eyes
Methinks. I see them again-see there
see, how he blinks. s,,n
Now he smacks his blood-dripping' nun
ger-set jaws; Am 81 ,,r
Now he lenses his muscles TIL MS uh
~