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MAUD OF ALLINGGALE.
PART I.
I.
The wind was toying with her hair,As on the turret top she stood;
Her gaze was on the bending wood,
And in her eyes a dim despair.
Moaning Œnone, sad and pale,
Sweet Psyche when her love had gone
Were not more tearful or forlorn
Than Maud of Allinggale.
II.
And “Ah,” she said, “he will not come!And I have waited all the day.”
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Like lances glimmer in the gloom.
And then the moon came sideling up
Deep set within a milky girth:
And at the zenith turned on earth
Like an inverted cup.
III.
Two moons o'er sleeping earth had bent,Then stately through the heavens strode,
Since Walter from the castle rode
Armed cap-à-pie for tournament:
“O Maud of Allinggale!” he said,
“A little while and I will come,”
And fondly o'er her drooped the plume
That floated from his head.
IV.
She heard his footsteps on the floor,She saw him thro' the forest leaves,
The orange sunshine on his greaves;
And he was gone—for ever more;
For in the heart of that green wood,
Unknown, unseen by mortal eyes,
The Castle of a Thousand Dyes
Of fairy Monok stood.
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V.
This queen immortal loved the knight,And so she sent an airling brood
To lead him thro' the bosky wood
Until he knew no left nor right;
And as he paused upon a steep
That rose from out a fountain place,
They sprinkled dew-drops on his face,
And so he fell asleep.
VI.
And two white-breasted wood-nymphs tookThe dreaming youth in their soft arms,
And bore him where a row of Palms
Shaddowed a draw-bridge on the brook;
And 'tween two cedars, old and gaunt,
Their summits tinged with yellow light,
They passed, and bore the sleeping knight
Into the fairy haunt.
VII.
They took the helmet from his brow,Unlaced his breast-plate, white as milk,
And draped him with a robe of silk
Glittering like a frozen snow!
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They placed a form like Walter's made,
And laid it in the forest glade
As though that he were dead.
PART II.
I.
When Walter woke his dream-filled eyesWere dazzled with the rainbow light;
“St. George!” he cried, “I'm lost to sight
And sense, be this not Paradise!”
He heard the trembles of a lute,
He saw the fountains leap in air,
And spread around him everywhere
The most delicious fruit.
II.
And chalices ambrosial brimmed,Flagons of the costliest wine
Fresh from the vineyards of the Rhine,
And honey from the richest skimmed;
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And delicacies of all isles,
Scattered around him, in huge piles
Lay like wrecked argosies.
III.
The trilling of a thousand birdsBurst on him with canorous swells,
And the faint tinkling of far bells
Came rustling through his sense's chords.
The walls were rough with priceless stones,
The window niches diamond-laid,
And the long fluted colonnade
Was girt with wealth of zones.
IV.
And there were halls so vast and deepThe eye could scarcely reach half through;
E'en music's echo weary grew,
And tripping through them fell asleep!
Upon his raptured senses stole
The rarest perfume of the spheres
Rich with the crystal, star-born tears
Found in the rose's bowl.
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V.
“What mystic things will fancy do!”He said, and, as he spoke, white hands
Undid the glitt'ring silver bands
That held a gorgeous curtain to,
And drawing back the silken screen
His eyes beheld, on throne of gold,
Like Egypt's courtesan of old,
Monok, the fairy Queen.
VI.
“O! thou that sittest goddess like!”He, kneeling, cried before the throne,
“Tell me if all my brain be gone!
And what these wondrous scenes that strike
My fancy captive? Whence thou art?
And whence this dulcet melody?
These nectar-laden gales, and why
This rustling in my heart?”
VII.
Then rich she made him with a smile,And sweeping from her throne with pride,
She laid her hand on his and sighed,
Half laughing at him all the while;
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With voice that had a cymbal's ring
“Sir Knight of Ainsworth thou art king
Of this domain!” she said.
VIII.
She led him to the 'nameled throne,And placed a crown upon his brow,
And kneeling at his footstool low,
“Sir Knight,” she said, “I am thine own!”
Her breath, like a soft summer gale
Nursed in the heart of some sweet grot,
Was on his cheek, and he forgot
His Maud of Allinggale!
PART III.
I.
As Lady Maud, heart-sick and pale,From Ainsworth's tower watched that night,
She saw a strange and flick'ring light
Moving across the darkened vale;
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Until she saw amid the gloom
The floating of a snowy plume.
Her lips half breathed a name.
II.
And down the spiral stair she sped,And in the long torch-lighted hall
She saw upon a bloody pall
Walter of Ainsworth, lying dead.
O! wild and mournful was her wail!
Pale Venus when Adonis died
Had not a sorrow wilder-eyed,
Than Maud of Allinggale.
III.
“Whose hand did this?” and then a floodOf tears o'er her eyelids broke;
And thus the knight of Lydwick spoke:
“We found him slain in yonder wood,
His red blood mingling with the brook,
And his large thoughtful, staring eyes
Fixed on a cloudlet in the skies
With melancholy look.
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IV.
“We know not how Sir Walter fell;But if 'twas in concerted fight,
We know he fell like a true knight.
Who struck the blow, it were not well
That he a knight of Ainsworth meet;
We 'd teach him that our Walter's death
Has made ten swords in each sheath,
And he should kiss our feet!”
V.
Then Lady Maud bent down her headUpon the image's cold breast,
Like one that lieth down to rest;
They spoke to her, but she was dead!
Ah, why prolong the saddened tale?
In Ainsworth chapel, side by side,
Lies Walter's armor and his bride,
Sweet Maud of Allinggale.
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