As if the feet of a descending God Upon its surface trod, And like a pebble it rolled beneath his heel! This, O brave physician! this Is thy great Palingenesis! PRINCE HENRY, sinking back. O thou voice within my breast! And the flattering hopes of youth Have all deceived me and betrayed me? Give me, give me rest, O, rest! Golden visions wave and hover, Golden vapours, waters streaming, Landscapes moving, changing, gleaming! I am like a happy lover Who illumines life with dreaming! Brave physician! Rare physician! Well hast thou fulfilled thy mission! Alas! alas! His head falls on his book. THE ANGEL, receding. Like a vapour the golden vision Shall fade and pass, And thou wilt find in thy heart again Only the blight of pain, And bitter, bitter, bitter contrition. How sad the grand old castle looks! O'erhead, the unmolested rooks Upon the turret's windy top Sit, talking of the farmer's crop ; Here in the court-yard springs the grass, The stately peacocks, bolder grown, Come hopping down the steps of stone, As if the castle were their own; Haunt, like a ghost, the banquet-hall. But all is silent, sad, and drear, And now the only sounds I hear A horn sounds. What ho! that merry, sudden blast And, clattering loud, with iron clank, Down goes the sounding bridge of plank, As if it were in haste to greet The pressure of a traveller's feet! Enter WALTER, the Minnesinger. WALTER. How now, my friend! This looks quite lonely! No banner flying from the walls, No pages and no seneschals, No warders, and one porter only! Is it you, Hubert? HUBERT. Ah! Master Walter! WALTER. Alas! how forms and faces alter! I did not know you. You look older! HUBERT. Alack! I am a poor old sinner, And, like these towers, begin to moulder; WALTER. How is the Prince? HUBERT. He is not here; He has been ill: and now has fled. WALTER. Speak it out frankly say he's dead! Is it not so? HUBERT. No, if you please; A strange, mysterious disease Fell on him with a sudden blight. |