VECANTO SECOND

I

FILL the bright goblet, spread the festive board! Summon the gay, the noble, and the fair!! Through the loud hall in joyous concert poured, Let mirth and music sound the dirge of Care! But ask thou not if Happiness be there, If the loud laugh disguise convulsive throe, Or if the brow the heart's true livery wear; Lift not the festal mask! — enough to know, No scene of mortal life but teems with mortal woe.

II

With beakers' clang, with harpers' lay,
With all that olden time deemed gay,
The Island Chieftain feasted high;
But there was in his troubled eye
A gloomy fire, and on his brow
Now sudden flushed and faded now
Emotions such as draw their birth
From deeper source than festal mirth.
By fits he paused, and harper's strain
And jester's tale went round in vain,
Or fell but on his idle ear.

Like distant sounds which dreamers hear.
Then would he rouse him, and employ
Each art to aid the clamorous joy,
And call for pledge and lay,

And, for brief space, of all the crowd,
As he was loudest of the loud,

Seemed gayest of the gay.

III

Yet nought amiss the bridal throng Marked in brief mirth or musing long; The vacant brow, the unlistening ear, They gave to thoughts of raptures near, And his fierce starts of sudden glee Seemed bursts of bridegroom's ecstasy. Nor thus alone misjudged the crowd, Since lofty Lorn, suspicious, proud,

And jealous of his honoured line,

And that keen knight, De Argentine 1 → From England sent on errand high

The western league more firm to tie
Both deemed in Ronald's mood to find
A lover's transport-troubled mind.
But one sad heart, one tearful eye,
Pierced deeper through the mystery,

1 See Note 77.

And watched with agony and fear

Her wayward bridegroom's varied cheer.

She watched

IV

yet feared to meet his glance,

And he shunned hers; - till when by chance They met, the point of foeman's lance

Had given a milder pang!

Beneath the intolerable smart

He writhed; - then sternly manned his heart

To play his hard but destined part,

And from the table sprang.
'Fill me the mighty cup,' he said,1
'Erst owned by royal Somerled!

Fill it, till on the studded brim
In burning gold the bubbles swim,
And every gem of varied shine

Glow doubly bright in rosy wine!

To you, brave lord, and brother mine,
Of Lorn, this pledge I drink -
The Union of Our House with thine,
By this fair bridal-link!'

V

'Let it pass round!' quoth he of Lorn,

'And in good time that winded horn

1 See Note 78.

Must of the abbot tell;

The laggard monk is come at last.'
Lord Ronald heard the bugle-blast,

And on the floor at random cast

The untasted goblet fell.

But when the warder in his ear

Tells other news, his blither cheer

Returns like sun of May,

When through a thunder-cloud it beams! Lord of two hundred isles, he seems

As glad of brief delay

As some poor criminal might feel

When from the gibbet or the wheel

Respited for a day.

'Brother of Lorn,' with hurried voice He said, 'and you, fair lords, rejoice! Here, to augment our glee,

Come wandering knights from travel far, Well proved, they say, in strife of war

And tempest on the sea.

Ho! give them at your board such place

As best their presences may grace,
And bid them welcome free!'

With solemn step and silver wand,
The seneschal the presence scanned

Of these strange guests, and well he knew How to assign their rank its due; 1

For though the costly furs

That erst had decked their caps were torn,
And their gay robes were over-worn,

And soiled their gilded spurs,
Yet such a high commanding grace
Was in their mien and in their face

As suited best the princely dais

And there he marshalled them their place,

First of that company.

VII

Then lords and ladies spake aside,
And angry looks the error chide

That gave to guests unnamed, unknown,
A place so near their prince's throne;
But Owen Erraught said,

'For forty years a seneschal,

To marshal guests in bower and hall
Has been my honoured trade.
Worship and birth to me are known,
By look, by bearing, and by tone,
Not by furred robe or broidered zone;
And 'gainst an oaken bough

1 See Note 79.