'Though blasts athwarte the hawthorne hiss, I may not harboure here; My spurre is sharpe, my courser pawes, My houre of flighte is nere. All as thou lyest upon thy couch, 'How, ride to-night a thousand miles? 'Looke up; the moone is bright, and we I'll take thee to the bridal bed, And where is, then, thy house and home; ''Tis narrow, silent, chilly, dark; Far hence I rest my head.' And is there any room for mee, All as thou ly'st upon thy couch, The wedding guests thy coming waite, All in her sarke, as there she lay, Upon his horse she sprung; And with her lily hands so pale About her William clung. And hurry-skurry forth they goe, Unheeding wet or drye: And horse and rider snort and blowe, How swift the flood, the mead, the wood, The bridges thunder as they pass, But earthlie sowne is none. Tramp, tramp, across the land they speed; Dost feare to ride with mee? 'The moone is bryghte, and blue the nyghte; 'How glumlie sownes yon dirgye song! 'It creeps, the swarthie funeral traine, Like croke of todes from lonely moores, 6 Go, bear her corse when midnight's past, I've gott my wife, I take her home, My howre of wedlocke hayl. 'Lead forth, O clarke, the chaunting quire, To swell our nuptial song: Come, preaste, and reade the blessing soone; For bed, for bed we long.' They heede his calle, and husht the sowne; The biere was seene no more; And followde him ore feeld and flood Yet faster than before. Halloo! halloo! away they goe, And horse and rider snorte and blowe, How swifte the hill, how swifte the dale, By hedge and tree, by thorpe and towne, Tramp, tramp, across the land they speede; Dost fear to ride with me? 'Look up, look up, an airy crewe In roundel daunces reele: The moon is bryghte, and blue the nyghte, Come to, come to, ye gostlie crew, And daunce for us the wedding daunce, And brush, brush, brush, the gostlie crew And horse and rider snort and blowe, VOL. III. F F And all that in the moonshyne lay, And backward scudded overhead Tramp, tramp, across the land they speede; Dost fear to ride with me? 'I weene the cock prepares to crowe; 6 The dead, the dead can ryde apace; Our race is ridde, oure journey ore, And lo! an yren-grated gate Soon biggens to their viewe: He crackte his whyppe; the clangynge boltes, The doores asunder flewe. They pass, and 'twas on graves they trode; And many a tombstone gostlie white And when hee from his steede alytte, His head became a naked skull; His body grew a skeleton, And att his dry and boney heele No spur was left to be; And inn his witherde hand you might The scythe and hour glasse see. And lo! his steede did thin to smoke, And paled, and bleach'd, then vanish'd quite And hollow howlings hung in aire, Then knew the mayde she might no more But onwarde to the judgment seat, Through myste and moonlight dreare, The gostlie crewe their flyghte persewe, And hollowe inn her eare: 'Be patient, though thyne herte should breke, Arrayne not Heven's decree; Thou nowe art of thie bodie refte, Thie soule forgiven bee!' TAYLOR. BETH GELERT*; OR, THE GRAVE OF THE GREYHOUND. THE spearmen heard the bugle sound, The story of this ballad is traditionary in a village at the foot of Snowdon, where Llewelyn the Great had a house. |