reaty of union between Holland,
Zealand, and the southern Netherlands, against Spain, under
tyrannical Philip II. The treaty was greeted rapturously by the
frontier cities, because it was expected to free the Netherlands
from Spanish power.

"There is," writes Mr. Browning, "no sort of historical foundation
about 'Good News from Ghent.' I wrote it under the bulwark of a
vessel off the African coast, after I had been at sea long enough
to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back of a certain
good horse 'York,' then in my stable at home. It was written in
pencil on the fly-leaf of Bartoli's _Simboli_, I remember."

While there is, then, no historical foundation for the "gallop,"
the verisimilitude of the situation is perfect. Aix might easily
have resolved to set herself on fire at a given hour, rather than
submit herself and her citizens piecemeal to the torch of the
persecutor. The "horse without peer" might possibly have galloped
the ninety-odd miles between Ghent and Aix, but the feat would be a
marvelous one.

This poem and "Herve Riel," with the accompanying notes, are
reprinted from _Select Poems of Robert Browning_, edited by William
Rolfe, A.M., and Heloise E. Hersey, and published by Harper &
Brothers.

I

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

II

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,
Rebuckled the check-strap, chained slacker the bit,
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.

III

'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near
Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear;
At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see;
At Duffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be;
And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half chime,
So Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time!"

IV

At Aerschot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,
And against him the cattle stood black