THE BLACK KNIGHT.
To King Banalin’s court there came
From divers lands beyond the sea
A score of knights, with hearts aflame
With love for lady Ursalie,
Whose wondrous beauty and fair fame
Were sung by Europe’s minstrelsy.
Each lord in retinue did bring
A noble and a princely band,
Whose deeds the troubadours did sing
Through length and breadth of Christian land,
And each by turn besought the King
The favour of his daughter’s hand.
But spake the King to each brave lord,
“When first the sun shall shine in May
A tourney in the palace-yard
We do appoint, and on that day
Who holds his own with spear and sword
Shall take our daughter fair away.”
Whereat the Lady Ursalie
Blanched as a lily of the vale,
For many moons had waned since she
First pledged her love to Sir Verale,
And for that sick to death was he
Her trembling lips turned ashen pale.
The heavy scent of musk and myrrh
Hung all about the inner room,
Dim taper lights did faintly stir
To life the arras through the gloom,—
She bade her handmaid bring to her
The treasure-box that held her doom.
With lightest touch a secret spring
Upraised the silver casket’s lid;
She took therefrom a golden ring,
A broken coin, a heart hair-thrid,
And many a sweet and precious thing
Wherein her plighted troth was hid.
“Then welcome death, if death it prove,”
She said and kissed with lips still pale
Each sweet remembrance of his love;—
“I will not fail thee, Sir Verale,
Though from thy couch thou canst not move
To don for me thy coat of mail.”
Unto the chapel straight she went
And knelt before the altar-stone;
Her face within her hands she bent
Praying with many a tear and moan
Until the day was well-nigh spent,
When came a beadsman she had known;
“O! Father! join thy prayer with mine
The life of Sir Verale to save;
O! plead then at our Lady’s shrine
For health to one so young and brave.
For I will wed, with help divine,
No other lord this side the grave.”