The first course that they ran so free,
Sir John’s horse fell upon his knee:
“Now help me God!” said John.
The next course that they ran, in ire,
Sir Lavé fell among the mire.
“He’s dead enough!” said John.
The victor to the castle hied,
And there in tears he found the bride:
“Thou art my own,” said John.
That night, forgetting all alarms,
Again she blest him in her arms.
“I have her now!” said John.
MAY [3] ASDA.
FROM THE DANISH OF OEHLENSLÆGER.
May Asda is gone to the merry green wood;
Like flax was each tress on her temples that stood;
Her cheek like the rose-leaf that perfumes the air;
Her form, like the lily-stalk, graceful and fair:
She mourn’d for her lover, Sir Frovin the brave,
For he had embark’d on the boisterous wave;
And, burning to gather the laurels of war,
Had sail’d with King Humble to Orkney afar:
At feast and at revel, wherever she went,
Her thoughts on his perils and dangers were bent;
No joy has the heart that loves fondly and dear—
No pleasure save when the lov’d object is near!
May Asda walk’d out in the bonny noon-tide,
And roam’d where the beeches grew up in their pride;
She sat herself down on the green sloping hill,
Where liv’d the Erl-people, [4] and where they live still:
Then trembled the turf, as she sat in repose,
And straight from the mountain three maidens arose;
And with them a loom, and upon it a woof,
As white as the snow when it falls on the roof.