The young fellow addressed—whose tawdry finery, and the light rebeck (lute) at his back, showed him to be one of the strolling minstrels who then swarmed in every part of Europe—sang as follows—
“The vesper-bell was sounding sweet,
’Twas nigh the close of day,
When the Baron hied him forth alone,
But he hied him not to pray.
“He had thought upon an evil deed,
He had vowed an evil vow;
And he hied him to the darksome wood,
That had ne’er seemed dark as now.
“Amid that wood an altar stood,