GUINEVERE.

And while she grovell'd at his feet,

She felt the King's breath wander o'er her neck, And, in the darkness o'er her fallen head, Perceived the waving of his hands that blest.

Then, listening till those armed steps were gone,
Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found
The casement: 'peradventure,' so she thought,
'If I might see his face, and not be seen.'
And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!
And near him the sad nuns with each a light
Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,
To guard and foster her for evermore.

And while he spake to these his helm was lower'd,
To which for crest the golden dragon clung
Of Britain; so she did not see the face,
Which then was as an angel's, but she saw,
Wet with the mists and smitten by the lights,
The Dragon of the great Pendragonship

Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.

GINEVRA.

Dixerat; ante pedes sternenti in pulvere frontem

halitus uxori per colla errare videtur

regis, et ipse manus caeca in caligine motans

vota pio lapsae supra caput addere gestu.

haec adeo, auscultans donec ferrata silescat planta recedentis, pallenti denique vultu

se levat, incertaque manu petit aegra fenestram,
si forte adspiciat, fallat tamen ipsa mariti
adspectum. ecce autem rex sese ad limen agebat
vectus equo: tristes iuxta, pia turba, ministrae

stant sumpta face quaeque sua, quibus ille supremam
mandabat curam uxoris semperque tuendae
officium. facies absconditur aere loquentis,
qui tum divini speciem dabat oris, at ipsum
luce lacessitum madidumque vapore draconem
scintillare videt noctemque accendere fumo.

And even then he turn'd; and more and more
The moony vapour rolling round the King,

Who seem'd the phantom of a giant in it,
Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray
And grayer, till himself became as mist
Before her, moving ghostlike to his doom.

Then she stretch'd out her arms and cried aloud 'Oh Arthur!' there her voice brake suddenly, Then as a stream that spouting from a cliff Falls in mid air, but gathering at the base Re-makes itself, and flashes down the valeWent on in passionate utterance.

et iam nunc avertit eques, qui cinctus opaca nube, velut nimbo cum lunae involvitur orbis, effigiem obscura referebat mole gigantis, sublustri implicitus magis usque vaporis amictu, donec et ipse vapor merus exstitit, in sua fata coniugis ante oculos, noctis velut umbra, recedens.

Tum demum regina manus extendit et alta voce 'Arture!' vocat-vox rupta in faucibus haesit. ac velut effusus saxi de vertice torrens,

cum medio in lapsu discedit ruptus, at idem infra se reficit sparsasque recolligit undas impete fulmineo vallem ruiturus in imam, haud secus amenti pergit regina loquella.

THE MAID OF NEIDPATH.

Earl March look'd on his dying child,
And smit with grief to view her-
"The youth,' he cried, 'whom I exiled,
Shall be restored to woo her.'

She's at the window many an hour
His coming to discover:

And he looked up to Ellen's bower
And she looked on her lover.

But ah! so pale, he knew her not

Though her smile on him was dwelling'And am I then forgot,-forgot?'

It broke the heart of Ellen.

In vain he weeps, in vain he sighs,

Her cheek is cold as ashes;

Nor love's own kiss shall wake those eyes

To lift their silken lashes.

CAMPBELL.