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第4部分

the lady of the lake-第4部分

小说: the lady of the lake 字数: 每页4000字

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;  Outstripped his comrades; missed the deer;  Lost his good steed; and wandered here。'


XXX。

Fain would the Knight in turn require  The name and state of Ellen's sire。  Well showed the elder lady's mien  That courts and cities she had seen;  Ellen; though more her looks displayed  The simple grace of sylvan maid;  In speech and gesture; form and face;  Showed she was come of gentle race。  'T were strange in ruder rank to find  Such looks; such manners; and such mind。  Each hint the Knight of Snowdoun gave;  Dame Margaret heard with silence grave;  Or Ellen; innocently gay;  Turned all inquiry light away:  'Weird women we! by dale and down  We dwell; afar from tower and town。  We stem the flood; we ride the blast;  On wandering knights our spells we cast;  While viewless minstrels touch the string;  'Tis thus our charmed rhymes we sing。' She sung; and still a harp unseen Filled up the symphony between。


XXXI。

Song。

Soldier; rest! thy warfare o'er;      Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking;  Dream of battled fields no more;      Days of danger; nights of waking。  In our isle's enchanted hall;      Hands unseen thy couch are strewing;  Fairy strains of music fall;      Every sense in slumber dewing。  Soldier; rest! thy warfare o'er;  Dream of fighting fields no more;  Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking;  Morn of toil; nor night of waking。

'No rude sound shall reach shine ear;      Armor's clang or war…steed champing  Trump nor pibroch summon here      Mustering clan or squadron tramping。  Yet the lark's shrill fife may come      At the daybreak from the fallow;  And the bittern sound his drum      Booming from the sedgy shallow。  Ruder sounds shall none be near;  Guards nor warders challenge here;  Here's no war…steed's neigh and champing;  Shouting clans or squadrons stamping。'


XXXII。

She paused;then; blushing; led the lay;  To grace the stranger of the day。  Her mellow notes awhile  prolong  The cadence of the flowing song;  Till to her lips in measured frame  The minstrel verse spontaneous came。

Song Continued。

'Huntsman; rest! thy chase is done;      While our slumbrous spells assail ye;  Dream not; with the rising sun;      Bugles here shall sound reveille。  Sleep! the deer is in his den;      Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying;  Sleep! nor dream in yonder glen  How thy gallant steed lay dying。  Huntsman; rest! thy chase is done;  Think not of the rising sun;  For at dawning to assail ye  Here no bugles sound reveille。'


XXXIII。

The hall was cleared;… the stranger's bed;  Was there of mountain heather spread;  Where oft a hundred guests had lain;  And dreamed their forest sports again。  But vainly did the heath…flower shed  Its moorland fragrance round his head;  Not Ellen's spell had lulled to rest  The fever of his troubled breast。  In broken dreams the image rose  Of varied perils; pains; and woes:  His steed now flounders in the brake;  Now sinks his barge upon the lake;  Now leader of a broken host;  His standard falls; his honor's lost。  Then;from my couch may heavenly might  Chase that worst phantom of the night!  Again returned the scenes of youth;  Of confident; undoubting truth; Again his soul he interchanged  With friends whose hearts were long estranged。  They come; in dim procession led;  The cold; the faithless; and the dead;  As warm each hand; each brow as gay;  As if they parted yesterday。  And doubt distracts him at the view;  O were his senses false or true?  Dreamed he of death or broken vow;  Or is it all a vision now?


XXXIV。

At length; with Ellen in a grove  He seemed to walk and speak of love;  She listened with a blush and sigh;  His suit was warm; his hopes were high。  He sought her yielded hand to clasp;  And a cold gauntlet met his grasp:  The phantom's sex was changed and gone;  Upon its head a helmet shone;  Slowly enlarged to giant size;  With darkened cheek and threatening eyes;  The grisly visage; stern and hoar;  To Ellen still a likeness bore。  He woke; and; panting with affright;  Recalled the vision of the night。  The hearth's decaying brands were red  And deep and dusky lustre shed;  Half showing; half concealing; all  The uncouth trophies of the hall。  Mid those the stranger fixed his eye  Where that huge falchion hung on high;  And thoughts on thoughts; a countless throng;  Rushed; chasing countless thoughts along;  Until; the giddy whirl to cure;  He rose and sought the moonshine pure。


XXXV。

The wild rose; eglantine; and broom  Wasted around their rich perfume; The birch…trees wept in fragrant balm;  The aspens slept beneath the calm;  The silver light; with quivering glance;  Played on the water's still expanse;  Wild were the heart whose passion's sway  Could rage beneath the sober ray!  He felt its calm; that warrior guest;  While thus he communed with his breast:  'Why is it; at each turn I trace  Some memory of that exiled race?  Can I not mountain maiden spy;  But she must bear the Douglas eye?  Can I not view a Highland brand;  But it must match the Douglas hand?  Can I not frame a fevered dream;  But still the Douglas is the theme? I'll dream no more; by manly mind  Not even in sleep is will resigned。  My midnight orisons said o'er;  I'll turn to rest; and dream no more。'  His midnight orisons he told;  A prayer with every bead of gold;  Consigned to heaven his cares and woes;  And sunk in undisturbed repose;  Until the heath…cock shrilly crew;  And morning dawned on Benvenue。




                         CANTO SECOND。

                          The Island。


I。

At morn the black…cock trims his jetty wing;       'T is morning prompts the linnet's blithest lay; All Nature's children feel the matin spring      Of life reviving; with reviving day; And while yon little bark glides down the bay;      Wafting the stranger on his way again; Morn's genial influence roused a minstrel gray;      And sweetly o'er the lake was heard thy strain; Mixed with the sounding harp; O white…haired Allan…bane!


II。

Song。

'Not faster yonder rowers' might       Flings from their oars the spray;  Not faster yonder rippling bright;  That tracks the shallop's course in light;      Melts in the lake away;  Than men from memory erase  The benefits of former days;  Then; stranger; go! good speed the while;  Nor think again of the lonely isle。

'High place to thee in royal court;       High place in battled line;  Good hawk and hound for sylvan sport!  Where beauty sees the brave resort;      The honored meed be shine!  True be thy sword; thy friend sincere;  Thy lady constant; kind; and dear;  And lost in love's and friendship's smile  Be memory of the lonely isle!


III。

Song Continued。

'But if beneath yon southern sky       A plaided stranger roam;  Whose drooping crest and stifled sigh;  And sunken cheek and heavy eye;       Pine for his Highland home;  Then; warrior; then be shine to show  The care that soothes a wanderer's woe;  Remember then thy hap erewhile;  A stranger in the lonely isle。

'Or if on life's uncertain main       Mishap shall mar thy sail;  If faithful; wise; and brave in vain;  Woe; want; and exile thou sustain       Beneath the fickle gale;  Waste not a sigh on fortune changed;  On thankless courts; or friends estranged;  But come where kindred worth shall smile;  To greet thee in the lonely isle。'


IV。

As died the sounds upon the tide;  The shallop reached the mainland side;  And ere his onward way he took;  The stranger cast a lingering look;  Where easily his eye might reach  The Harper on the islet beach;  Reclined against a blighted tree;  As wasted; gray; and worn as he。  To minstrel meditation given;  His reverend brow was raised to heaven;  As from the rising sun to claim  A sparkle of inspiring flame。  His hand; reclined upon the wire;  Seemed watching the awakening fire;  So still he sat as those who wait  Till judgment speak the doom of fate;  So still; as if no breeze might dare  To lift one lock of hoary hair;  So still; as life itself were fled In the last sound his harp had sped。


V。

Upon a rock with lichens wild;  Beside him Ellen sat and smiled。 Smiled she to see the stately drake  Lead forth his fleet upon the lake;  While her vexed spaniel from the beach  Bayed at the prize beyond his reach?  Yet tell me; then; the maid who knows;  Why deepened on her cheek the rose?  Forgive; forgive; Fidelity!  Perchance the maiden smiled to see  Yon parting lingerer wave adieu;  And stop and turn to wave anew;  And; lovely ladies; ere your ire  Condemn the heroine of my lyre;  Show me the fair would scorn to spy  And prize such conquest of her eve!


VI。

While yet he loitered on the spot;  It seemed as Ellen marked him not;  But when he turned him to the glade;  One courteous parting sign she made;  And after; oft the knight would say;  That not when prize of festal day  Was dealt him by the brightest fair  Who e'er wore jewel in her hair;  So highly did his bosom swell  As at that simple mute farewell。  Now with a trusty mountain…guide;  And his dark stag…hounds by his side;  He parts;the maid; unconscious still;  Watched him wind slowly round the hill;  But when his stately form was hid;  The guardian in her bosom chid;  'Thy Malcolm! vain and selfish maid!' 'T was th

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