So fierce, it stretch'd him on the plain, Beside the wounded Deloraine. From the ground he rose dismay'd, No more the Elfin Page durst try Into the wondrous Book to pry; The clasps, though smear'd with Christian gore, Shut faster than they were before. He hid it underneath his cloak. Now, if you ask who gave the stroke, I cannot tell, so mot I thrive; It was not given by man alive. XI. Unwillingly himself he address'd, He lifted up the living corse, And laid it on the weary horse; He led him into Branksome hall, Before the beards of the warders all; There only pass'd a wain of hay. And the door might not be opened, He had laid him on her very bed. Whate'er he did of gramarye,' Was always done maliciously; He flung the warrior on the ground, And the blood well'd freshly from the wound. XII. As he repass'd the outer court, He spied the fair young child at sport: He thought to train him to the wood; For, at a word, be it understood,, He was always for ill, and never for good. * Magic. Seem'd to the boy, some comrade gay Saw a terrier and lurcher passing out. XIII. He led the boy o'er bank and fell, He had crippled the joints of the noble child ; Had strangled him in fiendish spleen : But his awful mother he had in dread, So he but scowl'd on the startled child, And darted through the forest wild; The woodland brook he bounding cross'd, And laugh'd, and shouted, "Lost! lost! lost!" XIV. Full sore amazed at the wonderous change, And frighten'd as a child might be, At the wild yell and visage strange, And the dark words of gramarye, The child, amidst the forest bower, And when at length, with trembling pace, He sought to find where Branksome lay, He fear'd to see that grisly face Glare from some thicket on his way. Thus, starting oft, he journey'd on, And deeper in the wood is gone, For aye the more he sought his way, Ring to the baying of a hound. XV. And hark! and hark! the deep-mouth'd bark Comes nigher still, and nigher : Bursts on the path a dark blood-hound, Soon as the wilder'd child saw he, He flew at him right furiouslie. I ween you would have seen with joy When, worthy of his noble sire, His wet cheek glow'd 'twixt fear and ire! And held his little bat on high; So fierce he struck, the dog, afraid, At cautious distance hoarsely bay'd,. But still in act to spring; When dash'd an archer through the glade, He drew his tough bow-string; |