The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume II Part 15

LXIII.

"Get thee back, sweet d.u.c.h.ess May! hope is gone like yesterday": _Toll slowly._ One half-hour completes the breach; and thy lord grows wild of speech-- Get thee in, sweet lady, and pray!

LXIV.

"In the east tower, high'st of all, loud he cries for steed from stall": _Toll slowly._ "'He would ride as far,' quoth he, 'as for love and victory, Though he rides the castle-wall.'

LXV.

"And we fetch the steed from stall, up where never a hoof did fall"-- _Toll slowly._ "Wifely prayer meets deathly need: may the sweet Heavens hear thee plead If he rides the castle-wall!"

LXVI.

Low she dropt her head, and lower, till her hair coiled on the floor-- _Toll slowly._ And tear after tear you heard fall distinct as any word Which you might be listening for.

LXVII.

"Get thee in, thou soft ladye! here is never a place for thee!"

_Toll slowly._ "Braid thine hair and clasp thy gown, that thy beauty in its moan May find grace with Leigh of Leigh."

LXVIII.

She stood up in bitter case, with a pale yet steady face: _Toll slowly._ Like a statue thunderstruck, which, though quivering, seems to look Right against the thunder-place.

LXIX.

And her foot trod in, with pride, her own tears i' the stone beside-- _Toll slowly._ "Go to, faithful friends, go to! judge no more what ladies do, No, nor how their lords may ride!"

LXX.

Then the good steed's rein she took, and his neck did kiss and stroke: _Toll slowly._ Soft he neighed to answer her, and then followed up the stair For the love of her sweet look:

LXXI.

Oh, and steeply, steeply wound up the narrow stair around-- _Toll slowly._ Oh, and closely, closely speeding, step by step beside her treading Did he follow, meek as hound.

LXXII.

On the east tower, high'st of all,--there, where never a hoof did fall-- _Toll slowly._ Out they swept, a vision steady, n.o.ble steed and lovely lady, Calm as if in bower or stall.

LXXIII.

Down she knelt at her lord's knee, and she looked up silently-- _Toll slowly._ And he kissed her twice and thrice, for that look within her eyes Which he could not bear to see.

LXXIV.

Quoth he, "Get thee from this strife, and the sweet saints bless thy life!"

_Toll slowly._ "In this hour I stand in need of my n.o.ble red-roan steed, But no more of my n.o.ble wife."

LXXV.

Quoth she, "Meekly have I done all thy biddings under sun": _Toll slowly._ "But by all my womanhood, which is proved so, true and good, I will never do this one.

LXXVI.

"Now by womanhood's degree and by wifehood's verity"-- _Toll slowly._ "In this hour if thou hast need of thy n.o.ble red-roan steed, Thou hast also need of _me_.

LXXVII.

"By this golden ring ye see on this lifted hand pardie"-- _Toll slowly._ "If, this hour, on castle-wall can be room for steed from stall, Shall be also room for _me_.

LXXVIII.

"So the sweet saints with me be," (did she utter solemnly)-- _Toll slowly._ "If a man, this eventide, on this castle wall will ride, He shall ride the same with _me_."

LXXIX.

Oh, he sprang up in the selle and he laughed out bitter-well-- _Toll slowly._ "Wouldst thou ride among the leaves, as we used on other eves, To hear chime a vesper-bell?"

Lx.x.x.

She clung closer to his knee--"Ay, beneath the cypress-tree!"

_Toll slowly._ "Mock me not, for otherwhere than along the greenwood fair Have I ridden fast with thee.

Lx.x.xI.

"Fast I rode with new-made vows from my angry kinsman's house": _Toll slowly._ "What, and would you men should reck that I dared more for love's sake As a bride than as a spouse?

Lx.x.xII.

"What, and would you it should fall, as a proverb, before all"-- _Toll slowly._ "That a bride may keep your side while through castle-gate you ride, Yet eschew the castle-wall?"

Lx.x.xIII.

Ho! the breach yawns into ruin and roars up against her suing-- _Toll slowly._ With the inarticulate din and the dreadful falling in-- Shrieks of doing and undoing!

Lx.x.xIV.

Twice he wrung her hands in twain, but the small hands closed again.

_Toll slowly._ Back he reined the steed--back, back! but she trailed along his track With a frantic clasp and strain.

Lx.x.xV.

Evermore the foemen pour through the crash of window and door-- _Toll slowly._ And the shouts of Leigh and Leigh, and the shrieks of "kill!" and "flee!"

Strike up clear amid the roar.

Lx.x.xVI.