Launcelot having been severely wounded, he was carried from the field and taken to a hermit's cave. Elaine sought him out. After he had sufficiently recovered he was removed to Astolat, where Elaine continued to be his nurse. But the knight's thoughts were elsewhere. "And Launcelot Would, tho' he call'd his wound a little hurt Upon his recovery Launcelot resolved to return to Camelot. Elaine sat at the window when the knight rode by. He knew that she was there. "And yet he glanced not up nor waved his hand.”—ELAINE. Sir Launcelot tried to forget Elaine and the associations of Shalott. His manner indicated a most heartless spirit. "His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd; As he rode down to Camelot. From the bank and from the river Sang Sir Launcelot." -THE LADY OF SHALOTT. Elaine was thus left alone, while Guinevere was made happy by Launcelot's return. "So in her tower alone the maiden sat : His very shield was gone; only the case, Her own poor work, her empty labor, left.”—ELAINE. She wandered aimlessly through the palace singing a strange monody which she called her song, "The Song of Love and Death." "Sweet is true love tho' given in vain, in vain ; And sweet is death who puts an end to pain: I know not which is sweeter, no, not I. "Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be : Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me. O Love, if death be sweeter, let me die. "Sweet love, that seems not made to fade away, "I fain would follow love, if that could be; I needs must follow death, who calls for me; Call and I follow, I follow! let me die." ! One day she called her father, and asked that he write a letter in her name and address it to Launcelot and the Queen. "And lay the letter in my hand A little ere I die, and close the hand And when the heat is gone from out my heart, Will guide me to that palace, to the doors."―ELAINE. The father promised, thinking the request more fantasy than real. "But ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh Her father laid the letter in her hand, And closed the hand upon it, and she died. So that day there was dole in Astolat."-ELAINE. She was borne by her two brothers to the river, where the barge was in readiness. They laid her upon a couch, and placing a lily in her hands, turned away in sorrow : "Then rose the dumb old servitor, and the dead Steer'd by the dumb went upward with the flood."—ELAINE. The barge floated on until it came near to the Castle of Came Launcelot was the first to see it: lot. "Then while Sir Launcelot leant, in half disgust Lay smiling, like a star in blackest night. Then turned the tongueless man From the half-face to the full-eye, and rose And pointed to the damsel."-Elaine. Sir Arthur ordered the dead to be brought within the palace. And as he stood gazing upon her face "He spied the letter in her hand, Stoopt, took, brake seal, and read it; this was all. I, sometime call'd the maid of Astolat, And to all other ladies, I make moan. Pray for my soul, and yield me burial. Thus he read, And ever in the reading, lords and dames To hers which lay so silent, and at times, So touched were they, half-thinking that her lips, Who had devised the letter, moved again."-Elaine. Sir Launcelot confessed that Elaine's love surpassed that of all women, but to be loved makes not to love again. The Queen reproached him, but— "Launcelot answer'd nothing; he only went, And at the inrunning of a little brook Sat by the river in a cove, and watch'd The high reed wave, and lifted up his eyes And saw the barge that brought her moving down, Far off, a blot upon the stream, and said Low in himself, 'Ah, simple heart and sweet, You loved me, damsel, surely with a love Far tenderer than my Queen's. Pray for thy soul? |