"This shalt thou do without delay; VIII. Away in speed Lord Cranstoun rode ; His Lord's command he ne'er withstood, The dwarf espied the mighty book! Like a book-bosomed priest, should ride : He thought not to search or stanch the wound, Until the secret he had found. IX. The iron band, the iron clasp, For when the first he had undone, Those iron clasps, that iron band, With the Borderer's curdled gore; * It had much of glamour might, Could make a ladye seem a knight; A nut-shell seem a gilded barge, A sheeling seem a palace large, And youth seem age, and age seem youth— All was delusion, nought was truth. X. He had not read another spell, When on his cheek a buffet fell, * Magical delusion. † A shepherd's hut. So fierce, it stretched him on the plain, From the ground he rose dismayed, Into the wonderous book to pry; The clasps, though smeared 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 addressed, He led him into Branksome hall, There only passed a load of hay. And, but that stronger spells were spread, Was always done maliciously. He flung the warrior on the ground, And the blood welled freshly from the wound. XII. As he repassed the outer court, He spied the fair young child at sport. He was always for ill, and never for good. * Magic. K Seemed to the boy some comrade gay ; XIII. He led the boy o'er bank and fell, Had strangled him, in fiendish spleen : So he but scowled on the startled child, The woodland brook he bounding crossed, And laughed and shouted, "Lost! lost! lost!" |