SONG OF THE FOURTH MAIDEN
66 Quake to your foundations deep, Stately Towers, and Banner'd Keep, Bid
your vaulted echoes moan,
As the dreaded step they own.
"Fiends, that wait on Merlin's spell,
Hear the foot-fall! mark it well!
Spread your dusky wings abroad,1
Boune ye for your homeward road!
"It is His, the first who e'er
Dared the dismal Hall of Fear;
HIS, who hath the snares defied
Spread by Pleasure, Wealth, and Pride.
"Quake to your foundations deep,
Bastion huge, and Turret steep!?
Tremble, Keep! and totter, Tower!
This is Gyneth's waking hour."
Thus while she sung, the venturous Knight Has reach'd a bower, where milder light3 Through crimson curtains fell;
[MS." Spread your pennons all abroad."]
-" and battled keep."]
-"soften'd light."
Such soften'd shade the hill receives,
Her purple veil when twilight leaves
Upon its western swell.
That bower, the gazer to bewitch,
Had wondrous store of rare and rich
As e'er was seen with eye;
For there by magic skill, I wis,
Form of each thing that living is
Was limn'd in proper dye.
All seem'd to sleep-the timid hare
On form, the stag upon his lair,
The eagle in her eyrie fair
Between the earth and sky.
But what of pictured rich and rare1
Could win De Vaux's eye-glance, where.
Deep slumbering in the fatal chair,
He saw King Arthur's child!
Doubt, and anger, and dismay,
From her brow had pass'd away,
Forgot was that fell tourney-day,
For, as she slept, she smiled:
It seem❜d, that the repentant Seer
Her sleep of many a hundred year
With gentle dreams beguiled.
That form of maiden loveliness, "Twixt childhood and 'twixt youth,
' [MS.—“ But what of rich or what of rare.”]
That ivory chair, that silvan dress,
The arms and ankles bare, express
Of Lyulph's tale the truth.
Still upon her garment's hem
Vanoc's blood made purple gem,
And the warder of command
Cumber'd still her sleeping hand;
Still her dark locks dishevell'd flow
From net of pearl o'er breast of snow;
And so fair the slumberer seems,
That De Vaux impeach'd his dreams,
Vapid all and void of might,
Hiding half her charms from sight.
Motionless a while he stands,
Folds his arms and clasps his hands,
Trembling in his fitful joy,
Doubtful how he should destroy
Long-enduring spell:
Doubtful, too, when slowly rise
Dark-fringed lids of Gyneth's eyes,
What these eyes shall tell.—
"St George! St Mary! can it be,
That they will kindly look on me!"
Lightning flashes, rolls the thunder!
Gyneth startles from her sleep,
Totters Tower, and trembles Keep,
Burst the Castle walls asunder!
Fierce and frequent were the shocks,-
Melt the magic halls away;
But beneath their mystic rocks,
In the arms of bold De Vaux,
Safe the princess lay;
Safe and free from magic power,
Blushing like the rose's flower
Opening to the day;
And round the Champion's brows were bound
The crown that Druidess had wound,
Of the green laurel-bay.
And this was what remain'd of all
The wealth of each enchanted hall,
The Garland and the Dame :
But where should Warrior seek the meed.
Due to high worth for daring deed,
Except from LOVE and FAME!
MY LUCY, when the Maid is won,
The Minstrel's task, thou know'st, is done :
And to require of bard
That to his dregs the tale should run,
Were ordinance too hard.
Our lovers, briefly be it said,
Wedded as lovers wont to wed,1
When tale or play is o'er;
Lived long and blest, loved fond and true.
And saw a numerous race renew
The honours that they bore.
Know, too, that when a pilgrim strays,
In morning mist or evening maze,
Along the mountain lone,
That fairy fortress often mocks
His gaze upon the castled rocks
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