Classic Poem

In Düsseldorf castle beside the Rhine
There's frolic and masquerading;
The candles glimmer, and revellers dance
To the music's sweet persuading.

The beautiful Duchess trips with the rest,
And often she laughs and loudly.
Her partner's a slender and courteous youth,
And gaily he moves and proudly.

He wears a velvet mask of black,
His eye is merry and beaming,
And bright and keen as a naked dirk
Half-sheathed, from the scabbard gleaming.

And the carnival mummers gleefully shout
As the pair go waltzing by them;
With growls and grunts Marizzebill
And Drickes nod and eye them.

The trumpets crash, and the deafening roll
Of the double-bass increases,
Till revel and dance at last are done,
And the sound of the music ceases.

" Illustrious lady, allow me to go;
I must leave you. " But, for answer,
The Duchess laughs and says, " Nay, first
I must see your face, Sir Dancer. "

" Illustrious lady, allow me to go;
My face is feared, all flee it. "
But the Duchess laughs, " No coward am I;
Uncover, that I may see it. "

" Illustrious lady, allow me to go,
To darkness and death I am wedded. "
But the Duchess laughs, " Ere you leave my side,
I must see this face so dreaded. "

With stern and sinister words he strove
To deny the thing she asked him;
Till, bent on her will, by force at last
The woman herself unmasked him.

" The headsman of Bergen! " The horrified crowd,
As if fearing to come in his clutches,
Fall back in alarm. To her husband's side
In terror flies the Duchess.

But the Duke is crafty and saves his wife
From shame; while the whole room wonders
He approaches the man and unsheathes his sword;
" Sirrah, down on your knees! " he thunders.

" With the stroke of this sword, be it known to all,
I dub you noble and knightly:
As Sir Knave of Bergen arise, " he said;
" You're a knave, so we've named you rightly. "

So the headsman became a noble, the first
Of the Knaves of Bergen, who boldly
And proudly throve by the Rhine, but now
In coffins of stone sleep coldly.