And ghastly faces thrust themselves between
His soul and hopes of peace with blasting mien.
It should be observed that Mordred, bound as a Templar by the strictest laws of chastity, is aiming at the ‘high grand-mastership,’ and consequently suffers not only the remorse of the murderer, but the dread of that defeat which his ambition must encounter in the discovery of his deed. His character is ably delineated; perhaps too nicely drawn, for so brief a tale, since the interest momentarily awakened in the ‘dark, proud man,’
——‘whose half-blown youth
Had shed its blossoms even in opening,’
is immediately lost in the horror of the catastrophe. But to pursue the outline of the story:
Now, on the second day, there was to be
A festival in church: from far and near
Came flocking in the sun-burnt peasantry,
And knights and dames with stately antique cheer,