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THEY rode through the wood at the dead
of night,
Three knights and a lady sad and pale,
While the moon drooped down with a wan weird light,
And a low wind sighed through the sleeping dale,
And the dead leaves rustled under their tread,
And the trees swayed muttering overhead,
And the moans of the forest pines came nigh;
But the river rolled onward silently.
Two of the knights rode straight and strong,
But the middle one bowed on his horse's mane,
And the winding path that they came along
Was tracked with a terrible crimson stain,
And a terrible sound, as of dying groans,
Rose as they passed o'er the broken stones
Down where the gorge lay bare to the sky,
And the river rolled onward silently.
And the lady wailed with a piteous woe,
While they rode on steadily down the bank
Where the blackness of water lay below
And the tall sedge-weeds grew lush and dank;
And the lady shrieked and prayed for grace,
But her brothers rode to the fording place
And looked with a triumphing deadly eye
Where the river was rolling on silently.
They rode their steeds to the middle stream -
The water stood at each horse's mouth -
They waited awhile in the dreary gleam
While their wearied chargers slaked their drouth;
And they raised from his saddle the wounded knight -
One moment his armour flashed in the light,
Then an eddy whirled and passed slowly by,
And the river rolled onward silently.
Two plashes, a face twice seen to rise,
The water a moment tinged with gore,
Then a gurgle heard mid the lady's cries,
A sudden bubble and all was o'er. -
And the knights rode quickly back to the bank
Where the lady watched while her lover sank -
Three that had come and but two to hie -
And the river rolled onward silently.
But the lady struck at her palfrey's side
And plunged him down with a plashing bound
Into the dark stream's deepest tide,
And they saw the white wreaths of foam whirl round;
And the palfrey swam to the farthest shore,
But the lady came to the land no more.
And two lay dead where but one should die.
But the river rolled onward silently.
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A Woman Sold
Bartimaeus
Judas
Pilate
The Walk To Emmaus
A Bride
A March Night
A Messenger
A Mother's Cry
A Wedding
Afterwards
Dead Amy
Deserted
Dreaming
Glad Waves
Going
How The Brook Sings
If
In The Storm
In The Sunshine
Looking Downstairs
Mary Lost
Never Again
Night Whispers
On The Lake
On The Shore
Our Lily
Passing Away
Perjured
Safe
Shadow
Sunlight
The Blush Rose
The Gift
The Heiress' Wooer
The Hidden Wound
The Lake
The Land Of Happy Dreams
The Old Year Out
The Red Star On The Hill
The River
The Setting Star
The Shadow Of A Cloud
To And Fro
To One Of Many
Too faithful
Two Maidens |
