Volume II Part 15 (2/2)
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.
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