Outstretched, two mallets. On a lectern laid,—

Between two casements, lozenge-paned, embayed,—

A vellum volume of black-lettered text.

Near by a taper, blinking as if vexed

With silken gusts a nervous curtain sends,

Behind which, haply, daggered Murder bends.

And then I seem to see again the hall,

The stairway leading to that room.—Then all

The terror of that night of blood and crime

Passes before me.—It is Catherine's time: