Empty of light and song. She only heard

The King and knights as people of a dream;

Yet keenly Geoffrey's lightest, laughing word

Stung to the quick, and stabbed her quivering life,

Till from each shuddering wound the red joy flowed;

And, though a ruddy fire on each cheek glowed,

She felt her drainèd heart within her cold;

Then all at once a hot thought stirred new strife

Within her breast, and suddenly grown old

And wise in treacherous imagining,