{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/arthur/art016.htm","path":"neu/arthur/art016.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art016.htm","text":"Sacred Texts\u00a0\n Legends/Sagas\u00a0\n England\u00a0\n Index\u00a0\n Previous\u00a0\n Next\u00a0\n \n \n An Arthurian Miscellany\n \"MERLIN'S YOUTH\"\n by\n GEORGE BIDDER\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0PREFACE\n \n The name Yberha is pronounced nearly to\n rhyme with the Italian word guerra .\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0G. P. B.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0FIRST PART\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01\n \n A lad I was, dark-haired and dark of eye,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ever the first to court a danger shown,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ever the last to lay my courage down\n In face of man or sprite. Strife then ran high\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Betwixt us and the strangers; and the land\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stirred with a thrill it could not understand.\n \n For 'twas the tie that bound mother and child,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And strangers would possess her bosom bare,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And strangers batten on our woodland air,\n And strangers trample on our mountains wild;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And so the earth stirred in stern motherhood,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And all her children knew in their blood.\n \n Slight-limbed was I, nor challenged feats of strength:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My great-thewed cousins hurled the massy rock,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And flung the fir-tree that ten winters' shock\n Had left unharmed. Thick shoulders, thighs of length,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Flat hips, stout buttocks; -- they could throw a steer,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or drink their shallow wits away the livelong year.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02\n \n Yberha was her name. Across the flood,\n Where then a mounded tower in stoutness stood,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There lived her father; -- silent, moody man,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Caring not who was kind nor who was proud,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor what more than aught else men cried aloud,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor where his neighbour's power stretched its span.\n \n One moonlight night I swam the tide across,\n Met the great wave in the middle, saw it toss,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tossed a long bowshot in its boiling surge,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fought till the flood could know its master there,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Swam, bold, to the further bank, for earth and air,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And saw her standing silent on the verge.\n \n The moon played on her head, and yellow hair\n Flowed to her waist with never let or care;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0White dress, white arms, shone in the mystic light,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pale cheeks, and lips compressed, were desolate:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She seemed a spirit wandered forth by fate,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To give a pallid soul to the dead night.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03\n \n She looked toward the moon; and, stooping down,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Reached backward without gazing, from the sward\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Plucking three strange leaves, and with a careful ward\n Knotted them fast enfolded in her gown;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor ever looked but straitly at the moon,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And murmured weary words to strange sad tune: -- \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Listen maid, listen man,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Catch bubble who catch can,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Surge tide, river glide;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Merge bush, shiver rush:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Watch, fair lady of the skies!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Look me, look me in the eyes;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You shall not see me pick your prize.\"\n \n I knew not if she were of fairy birth,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But knew that she was fair, as never yet\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Has man known and been able to forget.\n I knew not were she slight or honest worth;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But knew that how so e'er I lived on earth,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For how so many years, without her it was dearth.\n \n And stepping forth beside her on the dew,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I said, \"The night is lonely in this place,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The moon is poor protection for your grace;\n The wolves are fierce, and those that dare them few:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Till you find safer guardian I will stand\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Beside you; strong or weak, to your command.\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04\n \n And so I turned, proud of my youth and might,\n Of skill and courage -- for, whate'er the fight,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The swift eye and the swiftly-reasoning brain,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Knowing when best to give, and when to take,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And vantage out of direst chance to make,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Laughs at the strength that rives an oak in twain; -- \n \n Proud of my power, shamed of my nakedness;\n Nor caring what this maid with golden tress\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thought of my sudden speech. For she was mine,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I cared not how so great her pride or power,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor did her lips smile or her forehead lower,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or tears or fire beneath her eyelids shine.\n \n Proud of my power, I knew her ever mine,\n Willing or unwilling; so the sun should shine\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The morrow, or the winter bring us snow.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Strength must bow down to greater strength; and none,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My proud youth told me, breathed our Western sun\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Woman or man, my subtle force could know.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a05\n \n Turned she, a-rustle in the dewy grass: --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Strange things, methinks, are come abroad to-night,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When a poor stripling deems my heart in fright\n For wolves, that every woodland hind would pass\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And send them snarling back. Yet wolves, fair boy,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Perchance the more than you such meeting would enjoy!\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With that she raised her white arms in the wind,\n And waving cried aloud. By lonely mere,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the night sleep is deep, somewhiles a sound,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unearthly and unheavenly, fills the round\n Of the starred sky, and earth is filled with fear:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Such sounds she sent through moonlight and through shade,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Waving her white arms toward the forest glade;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And my heart beat beside her, fragrant-skinned.\n \n Three times she called, once to the moony South,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once to the mountain woods; and once she turned,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And where the North Star by his chariot burned,\n Once more that strange wail came from that curved mouth:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And my arms ached her filmy weight to bear,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And in my blood was tangling all her golden hair.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a06\n \n But from the South there came an answering cry\n I knew ere yet it ceased. For that reply\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I heard when with my cousins we had found\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A she-wolf in her lair, and on a fire\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Had tied the dam to burn out her desire\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For human flesh, and on the gory ground\n \n Had killed her cubs before her. Then that sound\n Had answered the last cry of that sad mother bound;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And cousins stout cared not to stay and see\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What cheer her spouse should give them; so they ran\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To where were fire and walls and home of man --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I last -- and to my home his foot-tracks followed me.\n \n And from the West there came the fearful wail,\n That ever made men's faces change and pale,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of the old were-wolf of the woods; that through the dark\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Howled when a man should die. And North again\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A she-wolf screamed like a dead soul in pain: -- \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They cried there was a man soon to lie stiff and stark.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a07\n \n Once, twice, and thrice they cried; and every cry\n Nearer and nearer; and with moonlit eye\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She smiled upon me, mocking. I knew well\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That all in arms I could not fight these foes;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0High to the danger still my courage rose,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor, naked, owned their cries my funeral knell.\n \n I seized her swiftly up from where she stood,\n To bear her with me to the angry flood,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There swim for life or death; face to my face,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Heart to my heart, breath panting with my breath;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To live if I could live, die with my death,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And rot with me in one last long embrace.\n \n \"Boy,\" she laughed, \"art afraid of these my friends?\n The river but some cowardly mankin sends,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who dares not face the forest! Stand your ground:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I promise you shall have no cause for fear!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0These are my friends whom I have summoned here,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To do my pleasure fond, to do my bidding bound.\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08\n \n \"Seal thou thy promise with a kiss!\" I cried.\n She kissed; -- and in my ears murmured the tide,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And in her eyes the moon and stars were pent,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And in her lips were past and future bliss,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All life, all thought, sunk in one burning kiss:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stars, earth and heaven, in her eyes were blent --\n \n And round the wolves were seated. Panting tongue,\n Sharp teeth in cruel jaw, that hungry hung\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Under the gleaming eyes; and all the air\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Was noisome with their scent. The three that cried\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Were foremost; and sat watching, side by side, \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Where first from my young limbs the flesh to tear.\n \n Dark shadows stretched behind them with strange stars\n That came and went, as o'er the harbour bars\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The shipman sees the lantern on the shore.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dark shadows clustered round upon the grass,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And backward, forward, would a shadow pass;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And ever drew they nearer, ever more.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09\n \n We stood, and I stood foremost; till the breath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of him from the South whose vixen I had slain,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fanned warm on my cold limbs, and a thick rain\n Slavered from both those jaws of fearsome death;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And his coat bristled o'er in lustful hate,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Big with revenge, and hunger, and my fate.\n \n Yet she behind me gave a silvery laugh, \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like streamlet on the mountain, rippling clear,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When first it strikes the tired hunter's ear,\n Who turns from summer's hear its rill to quaff.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Low answered from the pack in fear and dread\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A whine of horror; and uneasy stirred each shadowy head.\n \n She struck her little hand across his ears --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Down, rascal! hast no manners for my friend?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kiss, dog, where I have kissed.\" -- I saw him bend,\n I felt his mouth drip hot and hungry tears\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over my feet; and then from foot to head\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He slavered me -- whose cubs I had laid dead --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With teeth, and shining eyes, and hair bristling in hate and dread.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a010\n \n Ever there rang the silvery laugh behind,\n And the eyes of the shadows moved; a single mind\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seemed to grow into the twining shapeless crowd,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As they closed together, and closer; poised on their feet,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As those who wait to know the moment is meet --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On a sudden the were-wolf rose and howled aloud --\n \n And away to the South were a cloud of galloping backs,\n Old dog, were-wolf, and the vixen leading the packs;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And up the stars rose laughter, awful and shrill:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She and I were alone. Her parted mouth\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shrilled, mocking, to the skies; and away to the South\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I saw a rushlight burn in the village under the hill.\n \n O then I turned to her, and I held my eyes\n Proud, gazing where I saw her eyelids rise:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Now, know you; wolves or fiends, I fear them nought;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But I will take what heart is in your breast,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I will make you follow my behest,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Natheless for all the spells that e'er were wrought!\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a011\n \n Her white hands touched my face. \"Poor, gentle boy,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And have you not enough of Yberha's grace?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Were you not sated with the wolf's embrace,\n That you would know my lips as little coy?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Would you court a bride who can cast a shade on the sun,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And will watch the soul in its flight when the rushlight yonder is done?\n \n \"I love not ever my father; who reads strange scrolls\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of how the world shall be happy, and men be kind,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And great ones from their slaves their chains unbind,\n And lowly men be great. I take his rolls\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And read on the other side, of power and pride;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who weds must win them for me, whatsoe'er betide.\n \n \"Swim home and dream in peace. Not yours to turn\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The forces of the stars out from the sky,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And wield them; while the men fall down and die\n Where'er your finger points, and the worlds burn,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And horror fills your soul with horror's depth and height,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And round about you press the forces of the night.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a012\n \n \"Boy, dare you hold unceasing, endless pain\n Thralled in your hand? when a shiver or a stain\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of fear across your mind would loose it there,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And in one flood would roll over your brain \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One blank of that unceasing endless pain,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And agony relentless, and unperishing despair.\n \n \"Dare you walk forth on lone eternal hills,\n And know beside you lone eternal wills,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bend them, unwilling, to tear up the earth,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To whirl the heavens backward, heap the sea,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cast night on noonday, set the Zodiac free.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And curse a newborn life before its birth?\n \n \"Swim home and dream in peace: and woo some girl\n Whose charms are blush of cheek, and waft of curl;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And give her then this kiss.\" I clasped her form,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0White-robed and slim: \"I woo no other maid;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I fear not death or pain, nor the cold shade \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of loneliness. Rage all your fiery storm.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a013\n \n \"Thus I will hold you! And in death or pain,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Victor or vanquished, till your bosom's snow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Melt in my heart, I will not let you go:\n I will not live away from you again;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I am more strong than you with all your might,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And all your beauty is my proper right!\"\n \n Still there she stood, clasped closely, dreamingly,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With moonlit eyes and dewy marble cheek,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lips moving not to kiss me or to speak;\n Still there she stood, clasped closely, dreamingly.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Her eyes shone in the darkness, as the light \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That leads forth wanderers, far, far into the night.\n \n Rested her white hand on my hungry arm:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"And I have been alone; alone,\" she said;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"I thought to go alone among the dead,\n And lonely guide them with an awful charm.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I thought alone to turn the weak world's length;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I knew not that a man had such a strength.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a014\n \n \"Fold round your arms more closely. How your lip\n Is cold, and night-dews from your eyelids drip!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fold closely. Now I know that life can give\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Something more sweet than power, yet more sweet\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Than cruelty. Do our hearts together beat?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To be in lonely strength is not to live.\n \n \"Kiss not so close, for I would speak awhile:\n Know, love, that I must wander many a mile\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0'Twixt now and day. Know, I can never wed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Save with death to my lover, but a man\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who knows my every spell to bless or ban;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unless I lay all down beside my marriage bed.\n \n \"Which will you: wed me as a powerless maid, \n Of night, and wolves, and warlock word afraid;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or wait till my high art yourself have learned?\"\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I cried -- \"I wed no weakling for my bride!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ride we this rotten world, whate'er betide:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I kiss you on it.\" -- And her lips like fire burned.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0SECOND PART\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a015\n \n S o three long years I toiled by night and day\n To learn her spells. The meteors at play\n Cried round us as we sat upon the hills,\n The lightning flowed in lucid gentle rills\n To bathe her feet; and strange tongues spake anon\n Thundering, and red streamers through the welkin shone.\n \n Sometime we pored o'er mystic written signs\n Tangled with pictured horrors, wrapt designs\n That first were stains of blood upon the page,\n And then were men, writhing in pain and rage,\n And then shone forth a face in hate and fear,\n And grew, until the eyeballs stared as near\n \n As beat her heart to mine. And as we gazed \n Sense became dim, and sight and thought amazed:\n The walls fell back from out that narrow room,\n The world lay wide before us in its gloom,\n Strange swift things sped on wings of livid light,\n And round about us closed the forces of the night.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a016\n \n Sometime from out the shadows of the grave\n We called the old Fenickian; who, when wave\n Curled o'er his ship to sink it in the deep,\n Bade there its mountainous waters hang, asleep\n (And still men show it, from the quiet sea\n A long white rock, o'erhanging treacherously):\n \n And he would teach us how in Orient land\n Great toiling sprites weave cables from the sand;\n And he that holds them may chain back the hours\n Till his proud life, in ever-waxing powers,\n Stretch on a thousand years, and time is tired,\n And all lies in his hand that ever he desired:\n \n And how within the bowels of the earth\n A fiery race awaits its coming birth,\n And they that master mighty spells have care\n To say nought that shall break their fetters there;\n Else all our world should vanish in a breath,\n One fierce and fearsome flame, and long eternal death.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a017\n \n And sometime we would pass into the skies\n Till the near stars gleamed hotly in her eyes;\n And we would look behind the Milky Veil \n Where watch the drowsy fates, weary and pale,\n Till planets cease to rule. And we would fall\n Downward to the abyss from whence the thunders call;\n \n And there were monstrous, mountainous, cloudy forms,\n Whose eyes were lightnings, and whose breaths were storms;\n Writhing and twisting through the unbounded deep,\n Now strove they at their chains, and now would sleep:\n When they be loosed the mountains pass to air,\n And all the solid earth to windy, dark despair.\n \n And sometime would we sit beneath the trees;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I would kiss the blushes to her face,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And wind her hair in many a wandering grace,\n And set it flowing to the evening breeze;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And bury her with flowers, scenting of spring,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And hear the white-barred winter-finch his love-bell ring.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0THIRD PART\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a018\n \n A nd so there went three years: and I was grown\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stronger than she, more daring in my spells,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Calling the spirits of the rugged fells\n As shepherd calls his dogs. Our troth was known;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Merlin would wed Yberha of the Mount,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Child of the silent man men held of small account.\n \n Yet never had he yielded to our troth,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor ever took her dower at my hand;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But called me wastrel of an ill-lived land,\n Profitless in labour, diligent in sloth,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No husband for his daughter; but a curse\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To make good bad in her, and make bad worse.\n \n That time the foe came on us. Fiery light\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shone forth from every hill-top, and all day\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Men drove their women and their herds away,\n And digged to wall about them all the night.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0About Yberha's tower they digged the wall;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yon moody man was leader of them all.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a019\n \n And from the sacred places came a chant\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From daybreak to nightfall; and fierce-eyed priests\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tore from the rout the best of all the beasts,\n Made ox and sheep up the long stoneway pant,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Till all the altars, set in crimson mire,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clouded the sky with smoke and marred the night with fire.\n \n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0THE PRAYER OF THE PRIESTS\n \n Great mountains, hear us!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hear us, who deck in flowers your granite brows\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And fill your cups with blood.\n \n Great river, hear us!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hear us, who pour our offerings on the wave,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whose fairest in thy bosom have their grave.\n \n Sun, hear us!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We give the best our bitter life allows\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To thee, giver of good.\n \n Gods of the forest, hear us!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Red drip the branches of your sacred trees:\n What other gods there be, O hear us!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And scent our offerings on the evening breeze.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Round, round\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We march in mystic rite;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sound, sound\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The trumpets to the Night:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She is coming from the east,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And the sacrifice, O priest,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is alight.\n \n Priest of the dawn,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is there help?\n Priest of the rocks,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is there help?\n Priest of the flood,\n Priest of the wood,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is there help?\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Round, round\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We march in mystic rite;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sound, sound\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The trumpets to the Night:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Take our foes, dying deep;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But we worship thee -- \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us sleep.\n \n Priest of the Night,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is there help?\n \n \n \n Yet nearer closed the foe: the holy seers\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Had fled to the holy woods, to pray anew\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In secret caverns where they held the clew;\n Our tower rang with lowings, moans, and cheers;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The strangers were encamped against the wall;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That, and the moody man, became the hope of all.\n \n Three days they sieged about us; till at length\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We penned the cattle and women in the tower,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Massed to their weaker wing in all our power,\n And rushed to measure with the foe our strength:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Foremost of all Yberha's father there;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An axe made like a cross he brandished in the air.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a020\n \n Bloodily waged the battle. I was light\n Of spear and swift of foot, and through the fight\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Passed like a wandering death. With heavy blows\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of axe on target, edg\u00e9d stone on hide,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My cousins fought in phalanx, side by side;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And over all the voice of Yberha's father rose:\n \n \"Strike for your children! Strike for love and wife!\n Strike for the kindly land that gave you life!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0-- O Thou that rulest lives and ways of men,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Save this poor ignorant people to new days\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That thus a thankful land thy grace repays.\"\n And he struck with the two-edged axe, and cried, \"Amen.\"\n \n But we were few, and I saw Yberha's head at the tower,\n And I drew forth, to weave a spell of power\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With her for conquest. Waving hand with hand,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She on the tower, I back from out the fight,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We read a twisted spell of potent might\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pointing to where the crossed axe made a stand; -- \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a021\n \n When all of a sudden the cross flew back as he smote,\n Slipping his grasp, and struck me down in the moat,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I rose with courage strangely faint, a cry\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rang from the foe; my cousins side by side\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Took blows of axe and spear on the stout bull-hide:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yberha's father was down, and our men began to fly.\n \n From out the tower whispered a light footfall, \n Where shone my beauty, cold, and white, and tall;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I leapt quick-hearted o'er our fenceless bank,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Crying, \"Come, sweetheart! speed we to the wood;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thy sire is dead: none other ever stood\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To foil our marriage; foil\u00e9d spells we well may thank!\"\n \n Cold stood she, white and tall. From out the fight\n Our men were rallying back upon the right.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She spake: \"Take up thy spear and lead the men,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nor think of spells or love. Sweep back yon foe,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or never word thine ear from me shall know:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When they are conquered, ask me further then.\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a022\n \n Dizzy I turned me, and with waving spear\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Called on my men and fell into the press;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Naught knew I but to long for her caress,\n And for her safety to be sick with fear:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Still with skilled arm I thrust, and thrust again,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And into the hot foe we fought out way amain.\n \n And as the sun was setting, down the hill\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We pressed them; and my wing the more and more\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Forced them, retreating, to the river shore,\n Until they turned to flee, and we to kill:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But where my cousins stood, stubborn and loud,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The battle waged like thunder in a thundercloud.\n \n At length there too the foe broke; turned and fled,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Scattering toward the river, and we ran\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To slay; but my huge cousin, once began\n The cloud to break, turned back among the dead,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And I cried wrathful words; but there they stood,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While half stricken foe escaped into the flood.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a023\n \n We slew till all were fled, or bound, or slain,\n Then turned triumphing to the tower again.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The women busily sped to and fro\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Helping the wounded; or with bitter wail\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pressed lip to cheek that sundown-light left pale;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or vainly, sadly, searched their dead to know.\n \n I was unwounded. Youth, and skill of fence,\n And fearless coolness, and a delicate sense\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of where a man was weakest, kept my head;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And so, afront of all my lagging men, \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I mounted lightly from the bloody glen,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And walked to meet my love among the dead. \n \n A dark group stood within our earthen mound;\n A body, and my cousins pressing round;\n And she, white-robed, the nearest. Lightly treading,\n As one that walks from waiting unto wedding,\n I came behind her; and, ere I could speak,\n Had touched her glossy hair, and kissed her cheek.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a024\n \n Like adder coiled about her threatened young,\n With head thrown back, and swift death-dealing tongue,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Turning, she spake: -- \"Smooth coward! whole of skin,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You have come well forth from all this bitter strife,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And saved, at least, one traitorous, worthless life --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Maid's body, with a weasel's heart within!\n \n \"There lies my father, stricken by your guile.\n You faced him not to kill him; but, with wile\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Evil and secret, struck him out of sight,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Spelling I know not what of fatal ban.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You could lay low a fearless, trustful man,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Foremost and strongest in his people's fight\n \n \"I wed you? Wed me rather to the raven,\n Gorged with yon bravest blood, than to a craven.\"\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With that she faced the rest, and, bowing head --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"I have been wild and foolish as a maid,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And tried to learn strange arts, proud not to be afraid:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For ever now I lay them by,\" she said.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a025\n \n \"Worthless they were, worthless I know are those\n Who seek out all the thorns whereon the rose\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of our fair life, by sun and showers fed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blossoms in love and truth. Crook'd thorns there be;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And strange imaginings those that seek them see:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Methinks the most of them are false,\" she said.\n \n \"An honest man, with strong and brave right arm\n To keep a loving woman from all harm,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seeing at night a glowing ingle-bed\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With laughing, dark-haired children, clear of eye,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fearlessly helpless, smiling trustfully; --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stronger are these than charms or spells,\" she said.\n \n \"Friends, I was wrong; this day I have seen clear\n That such things are but vain; be witness here;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I tell, who know. My days that be unsped\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Henceforth I strive -- and what I strive I can -- \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To live a woman, as my sire a man,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Worthy of love from man and child,\" she said. \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a026\n \n \"This thing that fed my follies, in my blindness\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I thought to marry; but my father wise,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seeing my madness with a father's eyes,\n Dissuaded, vainly, gently, with a father's kindness.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0-- Foolish or false, my strange arts this man shared:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Traitor in them, his black heart he has bared;\n \n \"I leave him, and for ever.\" Such mad words --\n More mad, more fierce than memory affords\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To utter rightly, -- with proud head back thrown,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She uttered; in some glamour, as I thought,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That made her to the bold day I had fought\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blind, and forgetful of our magic throne;\n \n I deemed that it would pass. And cousin stout\n Stood forth and said, \"Fair lady, in yon rout\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Young Merlin led the van, no traitor he.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of star-work tricks I know not; but you twain\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Foolish and young, grow not so young again:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Marry him, maid! he made our foes to flee.\"\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a027\n \n So his two brothers dropped axe-handle down\n Upon the ground; and, nodding with wise frown,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Said, \"Aye, the chief is right; he led the van:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Marry him, lady, 'tis a fightsome lad!\"\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And one said, \"Lady, be not all so sad;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Your father breathes, perchance not sped his span.\"\n \n But she looked on the corse despairingly:\n And one said to me, \"Lad, 'twere better see\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is no time for wooing. On the morrow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She will forget these strange things she has said\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of all your love-games. Leave her with her dead;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You must not woo a maiden in her sorrow.\"\n \n Then looked she on my cousin. Big and tired\n He stood, his eye no more with battle fired,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His face astreak with blood. One ugly gash\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Left half his forehead hanging; his right hand\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Swung powerless, broke at the elbow. Brown and tanned,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You saw him pale in the lips, and all his eyes with blood asplash.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a028\n \n \"Friend, you bestrode, untrod, my father's corse\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From afternoon till evening. Brave in fight\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I knew you; true to what you know is right\n I find you: strong and true. For better or worse\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I here do vow me yours. So you me wed\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I will be faithful wife, or know no marriage-bed.\"\n \n Silence held us, all still. She knelt aground,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And took his miry, bloodstained hand, and raised\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That ox-hoof to her honeyed lips. Amazed,\n I poised my spear; but the brothers held me round. \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stupid, but not unkindly louts, they bore\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Me, mad with rage, to a coracle on the shore.\n \n And one came with me, sculling where we knew\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Safe cave of refuge. There he stayed with me,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lying to watch the water from the sea\n Behind the islet where the willow grew;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And there we stayed a week beside the shore,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And to this day I never saw her more.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a029\n \n For he sailed me down the river, and set me forth\n With the fisher-folk that knew us not of the North;\n And I flung a stone on his boat as he sailed away\n That sank him there, and the tide swept into the bay;\n And none knew ever a man had come with me,\n Nor boat, nor whence I came, of earth or sky or sea.\n \n I chose me a cave where a wolf had made his den,\n And drave them forth with a stick: the people feared me then.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I lived as the wise men live in Orient lands;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I made strange spells in the night, and spell on spell\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I learned, till all the world obeyed me well;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And one, with weaving paces and with waving hands,\n \n You wot of, I made then; and spelled those twain,\n Her and her sotted lover, that again\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They ne'er should love, but see me ever there --\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But see me ever betwixt clos\u00e9d walls,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whether, without, sun rises or dew falls,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ever in hate, and ever in despair.\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a030\n \n And I live on in power, power of men,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To wield their kings and councils, and to wield\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Their herd-like armies on the battle field,\n And power o'er all that is beyond their ken.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And yet, sometimes, when I see the moon in the south, \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Methinks I feel warm lips upon my mouth.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Next: Prince Arthur. An Heroick Poem in Ten Books: Part I, by Richard Blackmore [1695]","title":"Arthurian Miscellany: Merlin's Youth, by George Bidder [1899]","type":"page"}