Classic Poem

I

Merrily flashed the sun-rays on
Grey Morpeth's castle bright;
The tower, and keep, and rampart shone
In morning's purple light.
Merrier within the court, the din
Of arming warriors rose:
Begirt with gallant squire and knight,
Sir Reginald Raed on his mailed steed
To the Border-foray goes.

II

" Fling open the gate, it waxeth late,"
Cried the chief; then backward bore
His rein, for a swarthy woman sate,
With a lowering brow and eye of hate,
On the coping-stone of the door.
" In the fiend's name say, why stopp'st thou our way,
On the ground with thy haggard stare;
Squat like a toad by the bridle-road
I had nigh tramped o'er thee there!"

III

" Sir Reginald Raed, I warn thee heed;
Thy menials thrust me forth;
But I watched day-break that thou should'st make
Thy peace with me on earth."
Wrath lit the chieftain's eye of flame;
" Dost beg in our threshold still,
And covert threat to our beards proclaim?
Get to the buttery, in God's name;
There feast thee at thy will.

IV

" From thy swart glance shoots ill askance
I fear not, woman! — hence:
An my will were free, from the gallows tree
Thine age were no defence."
She laid her hand upon the selle;
Upreared the steed on high,
Scathed as by fire-flakes shot from hell:
To earth that dark grey woman fell,
But she held him with her eye.

V

" Thou shalt hear me, Knight! while I do thee right
For the guerdon thou givest me:
Thou hast years threescore and o'er; the night
Of this day shalt thou never see:
The birthday feast in thy hall even now
Is spread for thee in vain:
The Judgment trump shall sound ere thou
With the helmed head and haughty brow
Shall enter there again!

VI

" Proud art thou of thy Saxon name;
No taint of Norman stains;
The blood of kings of deathless fame
Ancestral in thy veins;
But not a man of them shall see
Or warrior, sage, or bard,
Years threescore ten accorded thee.
Now wave thy falcon-pennon free
And forth to thy award.

VII

" Pass thou on thy war-horse forth,
Onward to the borderers march;
Never more returned on earth,
Shalt thou cross yon gateway's arch
Till thou guerdon give to me;
Till thy pride be lowered to know,
That the weak o'erthrown by thee,
Can a deadlier fall bestow!"

VIII

" Avaunt thee, witch! if ill befall
Or me or mine to-day,
I'll have thee hung on the castle wall,
To scare the crows away;
And wert thou man did'st beard me so,
The stoutest, in my wrath
My axe had felled thee at a blow.
Hence, ere I spurn thee as I go,
Thou reptile on my path!"

IX

Forth the warrior sprang, his armour rang;
His falcon-pennon spread
Waved to the wind; his spearmen lined
Marched on with measured tread;
The foray won, ere day was done
Pealed forth the wailing horn!
Felled to earth by the border spear,
Sir Reginald Raed on an iron bier
Of shields is homeward borne.

X

They passed the floor of the drawbridge door,
Where the woman-weird so late
Through the long night in wrath had paced;
Whose words had knelled his fate.
She passed like a shade the warder's gate,
But a scroll on the bar was traced;
A cross, and beneath the moral rede: —
" The dead their warnings give;
Spurn not the beggar in her need —
All have an equal right to live!"