VII. He talked of daggers and of darts, Of passions and of pains, Of weeping eyes and wounded hearts, He said, though love was kin to grief, But still the lady shook her head, He said, my First-whose silent car Though the unfathomed sky-- And then he set a cypress wreath Upon his raven hair, And drew his rapier from its sheath, Which made the lady stare; And said, his life-blood's purple flow If she he loved and worshipped so My Whole was all that he had said, VIII. My First came forth in booted state, For fair Valencia bound; And smiled to feel my Second's weight, And hear its creaking sound. "And here's a goaler sweet," quoth he, "You cannot bribe or cozen; To keep one ward in custody But daybreak saw a lady guide And "blessings on the bonds," quoth he, "Which wrinkled age imposes, If woman must a prisoner be, Her chain should be of roses." IX. I graced Don Pedro's revelry, Were met to feast together. He flung the slave who moved the lid, And this that gallant Spaniard did, He vowed a vow, that noble knight, To make his only sport the fight, Till he had dragged as he was bid To ride through mountains, where my First To leave the gates of fair Madrid, X. ALAS! for that forgotten day When Chivalry was nourished, When none but friars learned to pray And beef and beauty flourished! And fraud in kings was held accurst, And falsehood sin was reckoned, And mighty chargers bore my First, And fat monks wore my Second! Oh, then I carried sword and shield, cup, But dim is now my grandeur's gleam; With sheriffs and recorders. XI. On the casement frame the wind beat high, All Kenneth Hold was wrapt in gloom, And Sir Everard slept in the Haunted Room. I sat and sang beside his bed; Never a single word I said, Yet did I scare his slumber; And a fitful light in his eye-ball glisten'd, Was it my Second's ceaseless tone? Sir Everard did not fear my First; He had seen it in shapes that men deem worst Yet, in the darkness of his dread, His tongue was parch'd, and his reason fled; To see some Phantom gaunt and grim Come, dabbled o'er with blood. |