The Ingoldsby Legends :: :: University of Virginia Library

Miss Violet takes from the Countess her tone;
She agrees to meet Norman “by moonlight alone,”
And slip off to his bark,
“The night being dark,”
Though “the moon,” the Sea-Captain says, rises in Heaven
“One hour before midnight,”—i.e. at eleven.
From which speech I infer,
—Though perhaps I may err—
That, though weatherwise, doubtless, midst surges and surf, he
When “capering on shore,” was by no means a Murphy.

He starts off, however, at sunset to reach
An old chapel in ruins, that stands on the beach,
Where the Priest is to bring, as he's promised by letter, a
Paper to prove his name, “birthright,” &c.
Being rather too late,
Gaussen, lying in wait,
Has just given Father Onslow a knock on the pate,
But bolts, seeing Norman, before he has wrested
From the hand of the Priest, as Sir Maurice requested,
The marriage certificate duly attested.
Norman kneels by the clergyman fainting and gory,
And begs he won't die till he's told him his story;

314

The Father complies,
Re-opens his eyes,
And tells him all how and about it—and dies!