"What yonder rings? what yonder sings? Why shrieks the owlet gray?". "Tis death-bells' clang, 'tis funeral song, The body to the clay.

XLI.

"With song and clang, at morrow's dawn,
Ye may inter the dead:
To-night I ride, with my young bride,
To deck our bridal bed.

XLII.

"Come with thy choir, thou coffin'd guest, To swell our nuptial song!

Come, priest, to bless our marriage feast! Come all, come all along!".

XLIII.

Ceased clang and song; down sunk the bier;

The shrouded corpse arose: And, hurry! hurry! all the train The thundering steed pursues.

XLIV.

And, forward! forward! on they go; High snorts the straining steed; Thick pants the rider's labouring breath, As headlong on they speed.

XLV.

"O William, why this savage haste? And where thy bridal bed?""Tis distant far, low, damp, and chill, And narrow, trustless maid.'

XLVI.

"No room for me?"-" Enough for both;

Speed, speed, my barb, thy course!" O'er thundering bridge, through boiling

surge,

He drove the furious horse.

XLVII.

Tramp! tramp! along the land they rode,
Splash! splash! along the sea;
The scourge is wight, the spur is bright,
The flashing pebbles flee.

XLVIII.

Fled past on right and left how fast Each forest, grove, and bower! On right and left fled past how fast Each city, town, and tower!