The holy friar knelt him there
And crossed him, and began to tell
His beads, each counted for a prayer,
Until the sound of vesper-bell
Stole through the darkling twilight air
And warned them of the day’s farewell.
Each day at morn and noon and night
Her trusted handmaid she did send
To learn if her belovèd knight
In life’s estate was like to mend,
And on the eve of April’s flight
This message came her heart to rend.
“Tell thou my lady fair,” he said,
To her who bore the answer back,
“To-morrow will I leave this bed
And wear my suit of armour black;
To-morrow will I win and wed
Or lose both love and life, alack.”
The Lady Ursalie knew well
He could not rise, so ill he was,
And shuddered as her maid did tell
His dying state, then forth did pass
Unto the chapel, as the bell
Proclaimed the holy evening mass.
The morrow broke with golden rush
And chased the gloom of night away;
The pipe of blackbird, song of thrush,
Rose with the skylark’s roundelay,
The wild flowers started with a blush
To meet the first bright morn of May.
The palace-yard was all prepared;
Bright-hued pavilions stood around,
The banners waved, the armour glared,
The eager steeds tore up the ground,
And twenty princes who had dared
The tourney in the lists were found.
The King and Queen on daïsed throne
Received each knight on bended knee;
But like an image carved in stone
Sat lovely Lady Ursalie
And none who saw her would have known
For her the tourney was to be.
But one there knelt in sable mail
Of whom the King in accents rude,
Did ask his name, and why this bale
Of armour black, he did intrude;
He answered: “I am Sir Verale,
Long months thy daughter have I wooed.
And by this sable suit I wear,
This sterling blade of Spanish steel,
This iron shield and trusty spear,—
But chiefly by the love I feel,
I ask to wife thy daughter fair
And that, proud King, is why I kneel.”
When Lady Ursalie that voice
Did hear, her heart beat high with fears,
Her troubled soul did half rejoice
And memory filled her eyes with tears;
But as she smiled upon her choice
There fell a clash of shields and spears.