Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops
To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,
The voice of clustering Elfin groups
Rose up, his speech approving;
And cried that in such embassage
No worthier Elf could e’er engage;
And bade him speed the task whose wage
Should be their woe’s removing.
Hence, when the dawn looked dewiest,
Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,
Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,
While still the King lay dreaming;
But—since his se’ennight’s peril dared
Were long to tell—he home repaired
When Elfintown at sunset flared,
With roofs and windows gleaming.
He came, in sooth, at time of need,
Because the King had just decreed
A task that should all tasks exceed
Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:
A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,
Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,
And even the loftiest plantain-spike
Peer in prodigious pride o’er.
Not empty-handed Elfmel came:
A mirror wan in dark-wove frame
The Witch had sent, and o’er the same
Breathed many a murmur mystic;
In size it matched the rain-drop pearled
At broadest blade-point; round it curled
Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled
With sentence Kabalistic.
The which, if hung ere fall of night
Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight
Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,
Would show him such a vision
As must his frenzy scare away:
“Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”
Quoth she; yet more she would not say,
But sped the Elf on his mission.
This Elfmel did anon relate
To his comrades, met in grave debate,
Who joyed to learn their evil estate
Might now eftsoons be mended.
And twain in haste by secret stair
To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,
What time he bode all unaware
Of aught his Elves intended.