II

Morn; and the Autumn, dreaming, sat among

His ancient hills; Autumn, who now was wrung

By crafty ministers, sun, rain, and frost,

To don imperial pomp at any cost.

On each wild hill he reared his tents of war,

Flaunting barbaric standards wide and far,

Around which camp-fires of the red leaves raged:

His tottering state by flattering zephyrs paged,

Who, in a little fretful while, would soon

Work red rebellion under some wan moon:

Pluck his old beard, deriding; shriek and tear

His royalty; and scatter through the air

His tattered majesty: then from his head

Dash down its golden crown; and in its stead

Set up a death's-head mockery of snow,

And leave him stripped, a beggar bowed with woe.

Blow, wood wind, blow! the day is fair and fine

As autumn skies can make it; brisk as brine

The air is, rustling in the underbrush,

'Mid which the stag-hounds leap, the huntsmen rush.

Hark to the horns! the music of the bows!

À mort! à mort!--The hunt is up and goes,

Beneath the acorn-dropping oaks, in green,--

Dark woodland green,--a boar-spear held between

His selle and hunter's head; and at his thigh

A good broad hanger; and one hand on high

To wind his horn, that startles many a wing,

And makes the forest echoes reel and ring.

Away, away they flash, a belted band

From Camelot, through the haze-haunted land:

With many a leamer leashed, and many a hound,

With mouths of bell-like music, now that bound,

Uncoupled, forward; for, behold! the hart,

A ten-tined buck, doth from the covert dart.

And the big stag-hounds swing into the chase,

The wild horns sing. The pryce seems but a pace

On ere 'tis wound. But, see! where interlace

The dense-briared thickets, now the hounds have lost

The slot, there where their woodland way is crossed

By intercepting waters full of leaves.

Beyond, the hart a tangled labyrinth weaves

Through deeper boscage; and it seems the sun

Makes many shadowy stags of this wild one,

That lead in different trails the foresters:

And in the trees the ceaseless wind, that stirs,

Seems some strange witchcraft, that, with baffling mirth,

Mocks them the unbayed hart, and fills the earth

With rustling sounds of running.--Hastening thence,

Galloped King Arthur and King Urience,

With one small brachet-hound. Now far away

They heard their fellowship's faint horns; and day

Wore on to noon; yet, there before them, they

Still saw the hart plunge bravely through the brake,

Leaving the bracken shaking in his wake:

And on they followed; on, through many a copse,

Above whose brush, close on before, the tops

Of the great antlers swelled anon, then, lo,

Were gone where beat the heather to and fro.

But still they drave him hard; and ever near

Seemed that great hart unwearied, and 'twas clear

The chase would yet be long, when Arthur's horse

Gasped mightily and, lunging in his course,

Lay dead, a lordly bay; and Urience

Reined his gray hunter, laboring. And thence

King Arthur went afoot. When suddenly

He was aware of a wide waste of sea,

And, near the wood, the hart upon the sward,

Bayed, panting unto death and winded hard.

So with his sword he slew him; then the pryce

Wound loudly on his hunting-bugle thrice.

[Illustration: In her ecstasy a lovely devil Page 303

_Accolon of Gaul_

]

As if each echo, which that wild horn's blast

Roused from its sleep,--the solitude had cast

For ages on it,--had, a silvery band

Of moving sounds of gladness, hand in hand

Arisen,--each a visible delight,--

Came three fair damsels, sunny in snowy white,

From the red woodland gliding. They the knight,--

For so they deemed the King, who came alone,--

Graced with obeisance. And, "Our lord," said one,

"Tenders you courtesy until the dawn,

The Earl, Sir Damas. For the day is gone,

And you are weary. Safe in his strong keep,

Led thither with due worship, you shall sleep."

And so he came, o'erwearied, to a hall,

An owlet-haunted pile, whose weedy wall

Towered, rock on rock; its turrets, crowding high,

Loomed, ancient as the crags, against a sky

Wherein the moon hung, owl-eyed, round and full:

An old, gaunt giant-castle, like a gull

Hung on the weedy cliffs, where broke the dull

Vast monotone of ocean, that uprolled

Its windy waters; and where all was old,

And sad, and swept of winds, and slain of salt,

And haunted grim of ruin: where the vault

Of heav'n bent ever, clamorous as the rout

Of the defiant headlands, stretching out

Into the night, with their voluminous shout

Of wreck and wrath forever. Arthur then,

Among the gaunt Earl's followers, swarthy men,

Ate in the wild hall. Then a damsel led,

With flaring torch, the tired King to bed,

Down lonely labyrinths of that corridored keep.

And soon he rested, sunk in heavy sleep.

Then suddenly he woke; it seemed, 'mid groans

And dolorous sighs: and round him lay the bones

Of many men, and bodies mouldering.

And he could hear the wind-swept ocean swing

Its sighing surge above. And so he thought,

"It is some nightmare weighing me, distraught

By that long hunt." And then he sought to shake

The horror off and to himself awake.

But still he heard sad groans and whispering sighs:

And gaunt, from iron-ribbéd cells, the eyes

Of pale, cadaverous knights regarded him,

Unhappy: and he felt his senses swim

With foulness of that dungeon.--"What are ye?

Ghosts? or chained champions? or a company

Of fiends?" he cried. Then, "Speak! if speak ye can!

Speak, in God's name! for I am here--a man!"

Then groaned the shaggy throat of one who lay,

A wasted nightmare, dying day by day,

Yet once a knight of comeliness, and strong

And great and young, but now, through hunger long,

A skeleton with hollow hands and cheeks:--

"Sir knight," said he, "know that the wretch who speaks

Is only one of twenty knights entombed

By Damas here; the Earl who so hath doomed

Us in this dungeon, where starvation lairs;

Around you lie the bones, whence famine stares,

Of many knights. And would to God that soon

My liberated ghost might see the moon

Freed from the horror of this prisonment!"

With that he sighed, and round the dungeon went

A rustling sigh, as of the damned; and so

Another dim, thin voice complained their woe:

"Know, he doth starve us to obtain this end:

Because not one of us his strength will lend

To battle for what still he calls his rights,

This castle and its lands. For, of all knights,

He is most base; lacks most in hardihood.

A younger brother, Ontzlake, hath he; good

And courteous; withal most noble; whom

This Damas hates--yea, even seeks his doom;

Denying him to his estate all right

Save that he holds by main of arms and might.

Through puissance hath Ontzlake some few fields

And one right sumptuous manor, where he deals

With knights as knights should, with an open hand,

Though ill he can afford it. Through the land

He is far-famed for hospitality.

Ontzlake is brave, but Damas cowardly.

For Ontzlake would decide with sword and lance,

Body to body, this inheritance:

But Damas, vile as he is courageless,

Doth on all knights, his guests, lay this duress,

To fight for him or starve. For you must know

That in this country he is hated so

There is no champion who will take the fight.

Thus fortunes it our plight is such a plight."

Quoth he and ceased. And, wondering at the tale,

The King lay silent, while each wasted, pale,

Poor countenance perused him; then he spake:

"And what reward if one this cause should take?"--

"Deliverance for all if of us one

Consent to be his party's champion.

But treachery and he are so close kin

We loathe the part as some misshapen sin;

And here would rather with the rats find death

Than, serving him, serve wrong, and save our breath,

And on our heads, perhaps, bring down God's curse."

"May God deliver you in mercy, sirs,

And help us all!" said Arthur. At which word

Straightway a groaning sound of iron was heard,

Of chains rushed loose and bolts jarred rusty back,

And hoarse the gate croaked open; and the black

Of that rank cell astonished was with light,

That danced fantastic with the frantic night.

One high torch, sidewise worried by the gust,

Sunned that dark den of hunger, death and dust;

And one tall damsel, vaguely vestured, fair,

With shadowy hair, poised on the rocky stair:

And laughing on the King, "What cheer?" said she.

"God's life! the keep stinks vilely! And to see

Such noble knights endungeoned, starving here,

Doth pain me sore with pity. But, what cheer?"

"Thou mockest us. For me, the sorriest

Since I was suckled; and of any quest

This is the most imperiling and strange.--

But what wouldst thou?" said Arthur. She, "A change

I offer thee; through thee to these with thee,

If thou wilt promise, in love's courtesy,

To fight for Damas and his brotherhood.

And if thou wilt not--look! behold this brood

Of lean and dwindled bellies, spectre-eyed,--

Keen knights once,--who refused me. So decide."

Then thought the King of the sweet sky, the breeze

That blew delirious over waves and trees;

Thick fields of grasses and the sunny Earth,

Whose beating heat filled the high heart with mirth,

And made the world one sovereign pleasure-house

Where king and serf might revel and carouse:

Then of the hunt on autumn-plaintive hills;

Lone forest lodges by their radiant rills;

His palace at Caerleon upon Usk,

And Camelot's loud halls that through the dusk

Blazed far and bloomed, a rose of revelry;

Or, in the misty morning, shadowy

Loomed, grave with audience. And then he thought

Of his Round Table, and the Grael wide sought

In haunted holds by many a haunted shore.

Then marveled of what wars would rise and roar

With dragon heads unconquered and devour

This realm of Britain and crush out that flower

Of chivalry whence ripened his renown:

And then the reign of some besotted crown,

Some bandit king of lust, idolatry--

And with that thought for tears he could not see.--

Then of his best-loved champions, King Ban's son,

And Galahad and Tristram, Accolon:

And then, ah God! of his loved Guenevere:

And with that thought--to starve 'mid horrors here!--

For, being unfriend to Arthur and his Court,

Well knew he this grim Earl would bless that sport

Of fortune which had fortuned him so well

As t' have his King to starve within a cell,

In the entombing rock beside the deep.--

And all the life, large in his limbs, did leap

Through eager veins and sinews, fierce and red,

Stung on to action; and he rose and said:

"That which thou askest is right hard, but, lo!

To rot here, harder. I will fight his foe.

But, mark, I have no weapons and no mail;

No steed against that other to avail."

She laughed again; "If we must beg or hire,

Fear not for that: these thou shalt lack not, sire."

And so she led the way; her torch's fire

Sprawling with spidery shadows at each stride

The cob-webbed coignes of scowling arches wide.

At length they reached an iron-studded door,

Which she unlocked with one harsh key she bore

'Mid many keys bunched at her girdle; thence

They issued on a terraced eminence.

Below, the sea broke sounding; and the King

Breathed open air again that had the sting

And scent of brine, the far, blue-billowed foam:

And in the east the second dawning's gloam,

Since that unlucky chase, was freaked with streaks

Red as the ripe stripes of an apple's cheeks.

And so, within that larger light of dawn

It seemed to Arthur now that he had known

This maiden at his Court, and so he asked.

But she, well tutored, her real person masked,

And answered falsely, "Nay, deceive thee not.

Thou saw'st me ne'er at Arthur's Court, I wot.

For here it likes me best to sing and spin,

And needle hangings, listening to the din

Of ocean, sitting some high tower within.

No courts or tournaments or hunts I crave,

No knights to flatter me! For me--the wave,

The cliffs, the sea and sky, in calm or storm;

My garth, wherein I walk at morn; the charm

Of ocean, redolent at bounteous noon,

And sprayed with sunlight; night's free stars and moon:

White ships that pass, some several every year;

These ancient towers; and those wild mews to hear."

"An owlet maid," the King laughed.--But untrue

Was she, and of false Morgane's treasonous crew,

Deep in intrigues, even for the slaying of

The King, her brother, whom she did not love.--

And presently she brought him where, in state,

This swarthy Damas, 'mid his wildmen sate.

* * * * *

And Accolon, at Castle Chariot still,

Had lost long weeks in love. Her husband ill,

Morgane, perforce, must leave her lover here

Among the hills of Gore. A lodge stood near

A cascade in the forest, where their wont

Was to sit listening the falling fount,

That, through sweet talks of many idle hours

On moss-banks, varied with the violet flowers,

Had learned the lovers' language,--sighed above,--

And seemed, in every fall, to whisper, "love";

That echoed through the lodge, her hands had draped

With curious hangings; where were worked and shaped

Remembered hours of pleasure, body and soul;

Imperishable passions, which made whole

The past again in pictures; and could mate

The heart with loves long dead; and re-create

The very kisses of those perished knights

With woven records of long-dead delights.

Below the lodge within an urnéd shell

The water pooled, and made a tinkling well,

Then, slipping thence, through dripping shadows fell

From rippling rock to rock. Here Accolon,

With Morgane's hollow lute, as eve drew on

Came all alone: not ev'n her brindled hound

To bound before him o'er the gleaming ground;

No handmaid lovely of his loveliest fair,

Or paging dwarf in purple with him there;

Only her lute, about which her perfume

Clung, odorous of memories, that made bloom

Her absent features, making them arise,

Like some rich flower, before his memory's eyes,

That seemed to see her lips and to surmise

The words they fashioned; then the smile that drank

Her soul's deep fire from eyes wherein it sank

And slowly waned away to deeper dreams,

Fathomless with thought, down in their dove-gray streams.

And so for her imagined eyes and lips,

Heart-fashioned features, all the music slips

Of all his soul, himseems, into his voice,

To sing her praises. And, with nervous poise,

His fleet, trained fingers waken in her lute

Such mellow riot as must make envy-mute

The nightingale that listens quivering.

And well he hopes that, winging thence, 'twill sing

A similar song;--whose passions burn and pain

Its anguished soul, now silent,--not in vain

Beneath her casement, in that garden old

Dingled with heavy roses; in the gold

Of Camelot's stars and pearl-encrusted moon:

And still he hopes the heartache of the tune

Will clamor secret memories in her ear,

Of life, less dear than death with her not near;

Of love, who longs for her, to have her here:

Till melt her eyes with tears; and sighs and sobs

O'erwhelm her soul, and separation throbs

Hard at her heart, that, longing, lifts to death

A prayerful pleading, crying, "But a breath,

One moment of real heaven, there! in his arms!

Close, close! And, for that moment, then these charms,

This body, hell, canst have forevermore!"

And sweet to know, perhaps its song will pour

Into the dull ear of her drowsy lord

A vague suspicion of some secret word,

Borne by the bird,--love's wingéd messenger,--

To her who lies beside him; even her,

His wife, whom still he loves; whom Accolon

Thus sings of where the woods of Gore grow wan:--

"The thought of thy white coming, like a song

Breathed soft of lovely lips and lute-like tongue,

Sways all my bosom with a sweet unrest;

Makes wild my heart that oft thy heart hath pressed.--

Come! press it once again, for it is strong

To bear that weight which never yet distressed.

"O come! and straight the woodland is stormed through

With wilder wings, and brighter with bright dew:

And every flow'r, where thy fair feet have passed,

Puts forth a fairer blossom than the last,

Thrilled of thine eyes, those arsenals of blue,

Wherein the arrows of all love are cast.

"O Love, she comes! O Love, I feel her breath,

Like the soft South, that idly wandereth

Through musical leaves of laughing laziness,

Page on before her, how sweet,--none can guess:

Sighing, 'She comes! thy heart's dear life and death;

In whom is all thy bliss and thy distress.'

"She comes! she comes! and all my mind doth rave

For words to tell her how she doth enslave

My soul with beauty: then o'erwhelm with love

That loveliness, no words can tell whereof;

Words, words, like roses, every path to pave,

Each path to strew, and no word sweet enough!

"She comes!--Thro' me a passion--as the moon

Works wonder in the sea--through me doth swoon

Ungovernable glory; and her soul

Seems blent with mine; and now, to some bright goal,

Compels me, throbbing like a tender tune,

Exhausting all my efforts of control.

"She comes! ah, God! ye little stars that grace

The fragmentary skies, and scatter space,

Brighter her steps that golden all my gloom!

Ah, wood-indulging, violet-vague perfume,

Sweeter the presence of her wild-flower face,

That fragrance-fills my life, and stars with bloom!

"Oh, boundless exultation of the blood!

That now compels me to some higher mood,

Diviner sense of something that outsoars

The Earth--her kiss! that all love's splendor pours

Into me; all delicious womanhood,

So all the heart that hesitates--adores.

"Sweet, my soul's victor! heart's triumphant Sweet!

Within thy bosom Love hath raised his seat;

There he sits crowned; and, from thy eyes and hair,

Shoots his soft arrows,--as the moonbeams fair,--

That long have laid me supine at thy feet,

And changed my clay to ardent fire and air.

"My love! my witch! whose kiss, like some wild wine,

Has subtly filled me with a flame divine,

An aspiration, whose fierce pulses urge

In all my veins, with rosy surge on surge,

To hurl me in that heaven, all which is mine,

Thine arms! from which I never would emerge."

His ecstasy the very foliage shook;

The wood seemed hushed to hear, and hushed the brook;

And even the heavens, wherein one star shone clear,

Seemed leaning nearer, his glad song to hear,

To which its wild star throbbed, all golden-pale:

And after which, deep in the purple vale,

Awoke the passion of the nightingale.