He only named yon holy fane Be sure he's safe; and for the Græme, Think of the stranger at the isle, ELLEN. Well, be it as thou wilt; I hear, XII. BALLAD. ALICE BRAND. Merry it is in the good greenwood, When the mavis and merle are singing, When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in cry, And the hunter's horn is ringing. "O Alice Brand, my native land And we must hold by wood and wold, "O Alice, 't was all for thy locks so bright, "Now must I teach to hew the beech "And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, That wont on harp to stray, A cloak must shear from the slaughtered deer, To keep the cold away." "O Richard! if my brother died, "If pall and vair no more I wear, As warm, we'll say, is the russet gray, 66 And, Richard, if our lot be hard, And lost thy native land, Still Alice has her own Richard, And he his Alice Brand." XIII. BALLAD CONTINUED. 'Tis merry, 't is merry, in good greenwood; So blithe Lady Alice is singing; On the beech's pride, and oak's brown side, Lord Richard's axe is ringing. Up spoke the moody Elfin King, Who woned within the hill, Like wind in the porch of a ruined church, His voice was ghostly shrill. Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, Our moonlight circle's screen? Or who comes here to chase the deer, Beloved of our Elfin Queen? "Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie, "Lay on him the curse of the withered heart, The curse of the sleepless eye; Till he wish and pray that his life would part, Nor yet find leave to die." XIV. BALLAD CONTINUED. 'Tis merry, 't is merry, in good greenwood, Though the birds have stilled their singing; The evening blaze doth Alice raise, And Richard is fagots bringing. Up Urgan starts, that hideous dwarf, And, as he crossed and blessed himself, But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, "And if there's blood upon his hand, "Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood! It cleaves unto his hand, The stain of thine own kindly blood, The blood of Ethert Brand." Then forward stepped she, Alice Brand, And made the holy sign, - "And if there 's blood on Richard's hand, A spotless hand is mine. |