Ere night, as parted spirits cleave The knight smiled free at the fantasy, And adown the dell did ride. XXXV. Had the knight looked up to the page's face, Had the knight looked up to the page's face Had the knight looked back to the page's geste, For dread was the woe in the face so young, XXXVI. He clenched his hands as if to hold His soul's great agony— "Have I renounced my womanhood, For wifehood unto thee, And is this the last, last look of thine That ever I shall see ? XXXVII. 'Yet God thee save, and mayst thou have A lady to thy mind, More woman-proud and half as true As one thou leav'st behind! And God me take with HIM to dwell- As I have loved my kind.' XXXVIII. SHE looketh up in earth's despair, XXXIX. The tramp of hoof, the flash of steel- She stands amid them all unmoved. XL. 'Ho, Christian page! art keeping sheep, XLI. 'Where is thy master, scornful page, That we may slay or bind him?''Now search the lea and search the wood, And see if ye can find him! Nathless, as hath been often tried, XLII. 'Give smoother answers, lying page, Or perish in the lying.' 'I trow that if the warrior brand Beside my foot, were in my hand, "Twere better at replying.' They cursed her deep, they smote her low, They cleft her golden ringlets through; The Loving is the Dying. XLIII. She felt the scimitar gleam down, Than any sword from sheath,- XLIV. Ingemisco, ingemisco ! And the weary nuns with hearts that faintly Dirge for abbess laid in shroud, With the dews upon her head, Ingemisco, ingemisco! Is ever a lament begun Which, ere it endeth, suits but one?' THE LAY OF THE BROWN ROSARY. FIRST PART. 'ONORA, Onora,'-her mother is calling, She sits at the lattice and hears the dew falling She looks down the garden-walk caverned with trees, To the limes at the end where the green arbour is— 'Some sweet thought or other may keep where it found her, While forgot or unseen in the dreamlight around her Night cometh-Onora !' She looks up the forest whose alleys shoot on Feel the silence to consecrate more than the chant'Onora, Onora !' And forward she looketh across the brown heath'Onora, art coming?'-what is it she seeth? Nought, nought, but the grey border-stone that is wist To dilate and assume a wild shape in the mist'My daughter!'-Then over The casement she leaneth, and as she doth so, But his mother was wroth. In a sternness quoth she, Then the boy wept aloud. 'Twas a fair sight yet sad To see the tears run down the sweet blooms he had: He stamped with his foot, said "The saints know I lied Because truth that is wicked is fittest to hide! Must I utter it, mother?' In his vehement childhood he hurried within, |