The Dragon With Many Heads

: A Hundred Fables Of La Fontaine

An envoy of the Porte Sublime,

As history says, once on a time,

Before th' imperial German court

Did rather boastfully report,

The troops commanded by his master's firman,

As being a stronger army than the German:

To which replied a Dutch attendant,

"Our prince has more than one dependant

Who keeps an army at his own expense."
<
r /> The Turk, a man of sense,

Rejoin'd, "I am aware

What power your emperor's servants share.

It brings to mind a tale both strange and true,

A thing which once, myself, I chanced to view.

I saw come darting through a hedge,

Which fortified a rocky ledge,

A hydra's hundred heads; and in a trice

My blood was turning into ice.

But less the harm than terror,--

The body came no nearer;

Nor could, unless it had been sunder'd,

To parts at least a hundred.

While musing deeply on this sight,

Another dragon came to light,

Whose single head avails

To lead a hundred tails:

And, seized with juster fright,

I saw him pass the hedge,--

Head, body, tails,--a wedge

Of living and resistless powers.--

The other was your emperor's force; this ours."



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