Merrily swim we, the moon shines Sain ye, and save ye, and blithe mot bright, ye be, There's a golden gleam on the distant Forseldom they land that go swimming He has lighted his candle of death and What, ho! Sub-Prior, and came you of dool: but here Look, Father, look, and you'll laugh | Toconjure a book from a dead woman's THE WHITE LADY sings or speaks :YOUTH of the dark eye, wherefore didst thou call me? Wherefore art thou here, if terrors can appal thee? He that seeks to deal with us must know no fear nor failing; To coward and churl our speech is dark, our gifts are unavailing. The breeze that brought me hither now must sweep Egyptian ground, The fleecy cloud on which I ride for Araby is bound; The fleecy cloud is drifting by, the breeze sighs for my stay, For those be before thee that wish For I must sail a thousand miles before thee ill. Chap. XI. THE WHITE LADY sings :— TO THE WHITE LADY. HALBERT invokes : THRICE to the holly brake, I bid thee awake, White Maid of Avenel! Noon gleams on the lake, Noon glows on the fell,Wake thee, O wake, White Maid of Avenel. Chap. XI. 1 Sackless-Innocent. the close of day. WHAT I am I must not show- Neither substance quite, nor shadow, Every change of human passion, This is all that I can show This is all that thou may'st know. AY! and I taught thee the word and Lend thy hand, and thou shalt spy the spell, To waken me here by the Fairies' Well : But thou hast loved the heron and hawk, More than to seek my haunted walk; And thou hast loved the lance and the sword, More than good text and holy word; And thou hast loved the deer to track, More than the lines and the letters black; And thou art a ranger of moss and of wood, Things ne'er seen by mortal eye. FEAR'ST thou to go with me? A peasant to dwell; HERE lies the volume thou boldly hast sought; And scornest the nurture of gentle Touch it, and take it,-'twill dearly be THY Craven fear my truth accused; Must sleep without, or burst the gate. RASH thy deed, Mortal weed To immortal flames applying; Rasher trust Has thing of dust, On his own weak worth relying: Strip thee of such fences vain, Can bring thee back the chance that's Strip, and prove thy luck again. flown. WITHIN that awful volume lies MANY a fathom dark and deep Each in his sphere, MORTAL warp and mortal woof Nought stands fast but truth alone. ALAS! alas! Not ours the grace These holy characters to trace: Not to us is given to share The boon bestow'd on Adam's race. And this bright font received it-and COMPLAIN not on me, child of clay, of life Hath co-existence with the House of As will or wisdom rules thy mood, Avenel, And with the star that rules it. My gifts to evil turn or good. WHEN Piercie Shafton boasteth high, Look on my girdle-on this thread of Let this token meet his eye. gold- 'Tis fine as web of lightest gossamer, And, but there is a spell on 't, would not bind, Light as they are, the folds of my thin robe. But when 'twas donn'd, it was a The sun is westering from the dell, SIR PIERCIE SHAFTON sings :-WHAT tongue can her perfections tell, Such as might bind the champion of On whose each part all pens may massive chain, the Jews, Even when his locks were longest: it hath dwindled, Hath 'minish'd in its substance and its strength, As sunk the greatness of the House of Avenel. When this frail thread gives way, I to the elements Resign the principles of life they lent me. Ask me no more of this!-the stars forbid it. DIM burns the once bright star of Dim as the beacon when the morn is And the o'er-wearied warder leaves the light-house; There is an influence sorrowful and That dogs its downward course. Fierce hate and rivalry, are in the That lowers upon its fortunes. dwell. (ETCETERA, to the extent of about five hundred verses, ending thus:-) Of whose high praise and praiseful Goodness the pen, Heaven paper is ; THE WHITE LADY chants or recites :— Thou must loose by edge of sword. You have summon'd me once, you Unask'd for, unsued for, you come to Unsued and unask'd, I am with you agen. Chap. xx. |