Toll slowly.

Toll slowly.

"I had happier died by thee, than lived on a Oh, and laughed the Duchess May, and her soul Lady Leigh," did put away All his boasting for a jest.

Were the first words she did speak.

But a three months' joyance lay 'twixt that In her chamber did she sit, laughing low to think moment and to-day,

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When five hundred archers tall stand beside the castle-wall,

To recapture Duchess May.

And the castle standeth black, with the red sun at its back

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of it

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"Tower is strong and will is free-thou canst boast, my lord of Leigh,

But thou boastest little wit."

In her tire-glass gazèd she, and she blushed right
womanly.
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And a fortnight's siege is done-and, except the She blushed half from her disdain-half, her duchess, none beauty was so plain, -"Oath for oath, my lord of Leigh!"

Can misdoubt the coming wrack.

Then the captain, young Lord Leigh, with his Straight she called her maidens in-"Since ye eyes so gray of blee, gave me blame herein," Toll slowly.

Toll slowly.

And thin lips that scarcely sheathe the cold white "That a bridal such as mine should lack gauds gnashing of his teeth, to make it fine,

Gnashed in smiling, absently,

Come and shrive me from that sin.

Cried aloud, "So goes the day, bridegroom fair "It is three months gone to-day, since I gave of Duchess May!"

"Thou and I have parted troth-yet I keep my "I would look in purple pall from the lattice vengeance-oath, down the wall, And throw scorn to one that's there!"

And the other may come round.

"Ha! thy will is brave to dare, and thy new love Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds past compare "

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sang west.

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"Yet thine old love's falchion brave is as strong On the tower the castle's lord leaned in silence on a thing to have,

"Thou shalt wear the same to-morrow, ere the They have almost sapped the wall-they will enter therewithal, With no knocking at the gate.

grave has hid the sorrow

Of thy last ill-mated love.

"O'er his fixed and silent mouth, thou and I will Then the sword he leaned upon, shivered, call back troth." snapped upon the stoneToll slowly.

Toll slowly.

"He shall altar be and priest-and he will not "Sword," he thought, with inward laugh, “ill cry at least, thou servest for a staff When thy nobler use is done!

'I forbid you-I am loth!'

"I will wring thy fingers pale in the gauntlet of "Sword, thy nobler use is done!-tower is lost, my mail." and shame begun!" Toll slowly.

Toll slowly.

As the sword did, to prevail."

"Little hand and muckle gold, close shall lie "If we met them in the breach, hilt to hilt or within my hold, speech to speech, We should die there, each for one.

Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds "If we met them at the wall, we should singly, sang west,

vainly fall"

"These shall never die for me-life-blood falls "Ye shall harness him aright, and lead upward too heavily:'

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"And if I die here apart-o'er my dead and silent heart

They shall pass out safe and free.

to this height."

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"Once in love and twice in war, hath he borne

me strong and far.

He shall bear me far to-night."

"When the foe hath heard it said Death Then his men looked to and fro, when they heard holds Guy of Linteged,'"

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"That new corse new peace shall bring, and a blessèd blessed thing

Shall the stone be at its head.

him speaking so.

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"Las! the noble heart," they thought-"he in sooth is grief-distraught.

Would we stood here with the foe!"

"Then my friends shall pass out free, and shall But a fire flashed from his eye, 'twixt their

"With their words all smooth and sweet, they They have fetched the steed with care, in the will front her and entreat," harness be did wear, Toll slowly.

Toll slowly.

"And their purple pall will spread underneath Past the court, and through the doors, across her fainting head, the rushes of the floors, But they goad him up the stair.

While her tears drop over it.

"She will weep her woman's tears, she will pray Then from out her bower chambére, did the her woman's prayers-" Duchess May repair. Toll slowly.

Toll slowly.

"But her heart is young in pain, and her hopes "Tell me now what is your need," said the lady, will spring again

By the sun-time of her years.

"of this steed,

That ye goad him up the stair."

"Ah, sweet May! ah, sweetest grief!-once I Calm she stood; unbodkined through, fell her vowed thee my belief,"

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"That thy name expressed thy sweetness-May

of poets, in completeness!

Now my May-day seemeth brief."

dark hair to her shoe

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And the smile upon her face, ere she left the tiring-glass,

Had not time enough to go.

All these silent thoughts did swim o'er his eyes "Get thee back, sweet Duchess May! hope is grown strange and dim

gone like yesterday"—

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Toll slowly.

"One half hour completes the breach; and thy And he kissed her twice and thrice, for that lord grows wild of speech! look within her eyes

Get thee in, sweet lady, and pray.

Which he could not bear to see.

"In the east tower, high'st of all, loud he cries Quoth he, "Get thee from this strife-and the for steed from stall." sweet saints bless thy life!" Toll slowly.

Toll slowly.

"He would ride as far," quoth be, "as for love "In this hour, I stand in need of my noble redand victory, roan steed, But no more of my noble wife."

Though he rides the castle-wall.

"And we fetched the steed from stall, up where Quoth she, "Meekly have I done all thy biddings never a hoof did fall ". under sun;"

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"Wifely prayer meets deathly need! may the sweet Heavens hear thee plead

If he rides the castle-wall."

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"But by all my womanhood, which is proved so, true and good,

I will never do this one.

Low she dropped her head, and lower, till her hair | “Now by womanhood's degree, and by wifecoiled on the floor

hood's verity,'

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And her foot trod in, with pride, her own tears Oh, he sprang up in the selle, and he laughed i' the stone beside.

Then the good steed's rein she took, and his neck She clung closer to his knee-"Ay, beneath the did kiss and stroke: cypress-tree!”—

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Soft he neighed to answer her, and then followed "Mock me not, for otherwhere than along the up the stair,

For the love of her sweet look.

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greenwood fair,
Have I ridden fast with thee.

Oh, and steeply, steeply wound up the narrow "Fast I rode with new-made vows, from my anstair around!* gry kinsman's house."

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Did he follow, meek as hound.

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Oh, and closely, closely speeding, step by step "What, and would you men should reck that I beside her treading, dared more for love's sake As a bride than as a spouse?

On the east tower, highest of all-there where "What, and would you it should fall, as a never a hoof did fall

Down she knelt at her lord's knee, and she Ho! the breach yawns into ruin, and roars up

looked up silently

against her suing,

RHYME OF THE DUCHESS MAY.

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239

Toll slowly. With the inarticulate din, and the dreadful fall- Now he shivers head and hoof-and the flakes ing inof foam fall off,

Shrieks of doing and undoing!

And his face grows fierce and thin!

Twice he wrung her hands in twain, but the And a look of human woe from his staring eyes small hands closed again. did go,

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Toll slowly.

Back he reined the steed-back, back! but she And a sharp cry uttered he, in a foretold agony trailed along his track

With a frantic clasp and strain.

Evermore the foemen pour through the crash of window and door

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And the shouts of Leigh and Leigh, and the shrieks of "kill!" and "flee!"

Strike up clear amid the roar.

Thrice he wrung her hands in twain-but they Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds closed and clung again

She clung wild and she clung mute, with her The abeles moved in the sun, and the river shuddering lips half shut. smooth did run,

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Toll slowly.

Her head fallen as half in swound-hair and knee And the ancient Rhyme rang strange, with its swept on the ground, passion and its change, Here, where all done lay undone.

She clung wild to stirrup and foot.

Back he reined his steed back-thrown on the And beneath a willow-tree, I a little grave did slippery coping-stone.

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see,

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Back the iron hoofs did grind on the battlement Where was graved-HERE UNDEFILED, LIETH
behind,
MAUD, A THREE-YEAR CHILD,
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED FORTY-THREE.

Whence a hundred feet went down.

And his heel did press and goad on the quiver- Then, O spirits, did I say, ye who rode so fast ing flank bestrode

Straight as if the Holy name had upbreathed Though in passion ye would dash, with a blind her like a flame,

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and heavy crash,

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She upsprang, she rose upright-in his selle she Up against the thick-bossed shield of God's sate in sight, judgment in the field— Though your heart and brain were rash

By her love she overcame.

And her head was on his breast, where she Now, your will is all unwilled-now, your pulses smiled as one at rest

They have caught out at the rein, which Sir Guy Beating heart and burning brow, ye are very threw loose-in vain

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patient now,

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For the horse in stark despair, with his front And the children might be bold to pluck the hoofs poised in air,

On the last verge rears amain.

Now he hangs, he rocks between, and his nostrils curdle in !—

kingcups from your mould

Ere a month had let them grow.

And you let the goldfinch sing in the alder near in spring,