The Lady of the Lake Part 12

Minstrel, the Douglas dare not pause.

Why else that solemn warning given, 'If not on earth, we meet in heaven!' 230 Why else, to Cambus-kenneth's fane, If eve return him not again, Am I to hie, and make me known?

Alas! he goes to Scotland's throne, Buys his friend's safety with his own; 235 He goes to do--what I had done, Had Douglas' daughter been his son!"

XI

"Nay, lovely Ellen!--dearest, nay!

If aught should his return delay, He only named yon holy fane 240 As fitting place to meet again.

Be sure he's safe; and for the Graeme-- Heaven's blessing on his gallant name!

My visioned sight may yet prove true, Nor bode of ill to him or you. 245 When did my gifted dream beguile?

Think of the stranger at the isle, And think upon the harpings slow, That presaged this approaching woe!

Sooth was my prophecy of fear; 250 Believe it when it augurs cheer.

Would we had left this dismal spot!

Ill luck still haunts a fairy grot.

Of such a wondrous tale I know-- Dear lady, change that look of woe, 255 My harp was wont thy grief to cheer."

ELLEN

"Well, be it as thou wilt; I hear, But cannot stop the bursting tear."

The minstrel tried his simple art, But distant far was Ellen's heart. 260

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 265 Is lost for love of you; And we must hold by wood and wold, As outlaws wont to do.

"O Alice, 'twas all for thy locks so bright, And 'twas all for thine eyes so blue, 270 That on the night of our luckless flight, Thy brother bold I slew.

"Now must I teach to hew the beech The hand that held the glaive, For leaves to spread our lowly bed, 275 And stakes to fence our cave.

"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." 280

"O Richard! if my brother died, 'Twas but a fatal chance; For darkling was the battle tried, And fortune sped the lance.

"If pall and vair no more I wear, 285 Nor thou the crimson sheen, As warm, we'll say, is the russet gray, As gay the forest-green.

"And, Richard, if our lot be hard, And lost thy native land, 290 Still Alice has her own Richard, And he his Alice Brand."

XIII

BALLAD--(_Continued_)

'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, So blithe Lady Alice is singing; On the beech's pride, and oak's brown side, 295 Lord Richard's ax is ringing.

Up spoke the moody Elfin King, Who wonned within the hill, Like wind in the porch of a ruined church, His voice was ghostly shrill. 300

"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?

Or who may dare on wold to wear 305 The fairies' fatal green?

"Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie, For thou wert christened man; For cross or sign thou wilt not fly, For muttered word or ban. 310

"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, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, 315 Though the birds have stilled their singing; The evening blaze doth Alice raise, And Richard is f.a.gots bringing.

Up Urgan starts, that hideous dwarf, Before Lord Richard stands, 320 And, as he crossed and blessed himself, "I fear not sign," quoth the grisly elf, "That is made with b.l.o.o.d.y hands."

But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, That woman void of fear, 325 "And if there's blood upon his hand, 'Tis but the blood of deer."

"Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood!

It cleaves unto his hand, The stain of thine own kindly blood, 330 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. 335

"And I conjure thee, Demon elf, By Him whom Demons fear, To show us whence thou art thyself, And what thine errand here?"

XV

BALLAD--(_Continued_)

"'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in Fairyland 340 When fairy birds are singing, When the court doth ride by their monarch's side With bit and bridle ringing;

"And gaily s.h.i.+nes the Fairyland-- But all is glistening show, 345 Like the idle gleam that December's beam Can dart on ice and snow.

"And fading, like that varied gleam, Is our inconstant shape, Who now like knight and lady seem, 350 And now like dwarf and ape.

"It was between the night and day, When the Fairy King has power, That I sunk down in a sinful fray, And, 'twixt life and death, was s.n.a.t.c.hed away 355 To the joyless Elfin bower.

"But wist I of a woman bold, Who thrice my brow durst sign, I might regain my mortal mold, As fair a form as thine." 360

She crossed him once--she crossed him twice-- That lady was so brave; The fouler grew his goblin hue, The darker grew the cave.

She crossed him thrice, that lady bold; 365 He rose beneath her hand The fairest knight on Scottish mold, Her brother, Ethert Brand!

Merry it is in good greenwood, When the mavis and merle are singing, 370 But merrier were they in Dunfermline gray, When all the bells were ringing.