University of Virginia Library

As the finest crystal still
Bides the most exposed to ill,
As the finest crystal ever,
Brittlest, may the soonest shiver,
So in this world fares no less
With some rarer happiness:
Such a happiness was thine,
Siegfried, Count and Palatine,
When thou leddest home thy bride,
When thou watchedst her in pride,
As all eyes did on her wait,
Moving in her queenly state—
Genoveva, loveliest flower
Blooming in Brabantine bower
Once, and now transferred to dwell
On the banks of fair Moselle.
'Twas in sooth a golden time,
And the world was in its prime
For them two;—the sun stood high
Of their rare felicity—
Standing right above their head,
Did no way a shadow shed.

But this might not always last;
Happy months too soon have past:
Charles has called from east and west
All who own his high behest;
Charles has bid from far and near
All his liegemen to appear.
For must now at length be met,
Now must have its limits set,
That wild tide of Moslem war,
Which has rolled so fierce and far,
Issuing from Arabian sands,
Overflowing mightiest lands,
Till it reached to western Spain,
And has burst o'er Aquitaine,
And is panting to advance
To the very heart of France.
At the gate are trumpets sounding,
And impatient chargers bounding,
And a numerous proud array
Only for their chieftain stay;
And he comes; in lady's bowers
'Tis no time to waste the hours.
Who this precious time would choose
In ignoble ease to lose,
While by others fields are fought,
Glorious deeds by others wrought,
While by other hearts and hands
France is freed from miscreant bands?
Nor would she her lord detain,
Though her arms are like a chain,
That will scarce relax again;
Though when now the latest note
Of the trump in air doth float,
By her maidens she is found
Without motion on the ground,
In a deep and heavy swoon;
But from thence reviving soon
Doth her widowed state beguile,
Cheers the sad and lonely while,
Not with shows or pageantries,
Not with pomps or revelries,
But with prayer and vigil long,
With the Church's solemn song,
Stirring so the malice fell
And the deepest hate of hell.