Sceptre

They, in the rock reverberant held fast, / moan at the doors. Here, throned aloft, he reigns; / his sceptre calms their rage, their violence restrains: / else earth and sea and all the firmament / the winds together through the void would sweep.

"Speak, Queen," he answered, "to obey is mine. / To thee I owe this sceptre and whate'er / of realm is here; thou makest Jove benign, / thou giv'st to rule the storms and sit at feasts divine."

So spake the God and with her hest complied, / and turned the massive sceptre in his hand / and pushed the hollow mountain on its side. / Out rushed the winds, like soldiers in a band, / in wedged array, and, whirling, scour the land.

"Presumptuous winds, begone, / and take your king this message, that the sway / of Ocean and the sceptre and the throne / Fate gave to me, not him; the trident is my own."

Therewith the royal sceptre, which of yore / Ilione, Priam's eldest daughter, bore; / her shining necklace, strung with costly beads, / and diadem, rimmed with gold and studded o'er / with sparkling gems. Thus charged, Achates heeds, / and towards the ships forthwith in eager haste proceeds.

The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

The fool capered about the room, pointing his sceptre at various nobles.

The kingly emblems in King Egbert’s days were few and of no great value, probably nothing more than a crown and a sceptre.

When time seemed lost in darkness thy hand dropped its sceptre to take up the lute and strike the uttermost chords; and my heart sang out, O my Lover, my Beloved, my best in all the world!

“Divine receptacle of excellence, let it not be deemed impertinent, or deviating from the rules of propriety, if I propound one queſtion which now labours in my breaſt; aſſuring me firſt, you will not let the ſceptre of true judgment depart from your right hand.”