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WHAT YOU PLEASE, -No. III. 



THE STRAIT OF KING ETHELRED! 



KING Ethelred sat in his room alone, 



Alone and sad sat he ; 



And the night- wind broke with a plaintive moan 



Around that ancient tower of stone, 



And it howled right drearily. 



The castle clock hath cried aloud 



That the midnight hour was past, 



But the monarch sat with his forehead bow'd, 



And his face grew pale as a moonlit shroud, 



When he heard the rushing blast. 



The castle clock hath spoken again, 

 With a voice so loud and shrill ; 

 And you bend your ear and listen in vain, 

 For echoing step or minstrel's strain, 

 For all within is still ! 



King Ethelred sat in his lonely room, 



With the dying embers' fiery gloom, 



And his face bow'd down in thought as before, 



And his hand his forehead passing o'er, 



And soon the dreary wind did moan, 



And King Ethelred felt himself alone. 



But suddenly broke on his startled ears 



A shouting of men, a ringing of spears, 



And a leaping of voices into the sky, 



In a mighty storm of harmony. 



For a moment King Ethelred paused in doubt 



Should he stay in, or should he go out, 



To gaze on the scene of terror and fright ? 



He called to his trusty page for a light, 



But no answer was made to the prince's call, 



Save the moan of the old ancestral hall, 



And the ashes mouldering on the hearth 



Can kings be so left alone on earth ? 



Steadily, steadily, steadily tread 

 That mouldering stair, King Ethelred ! 

 The King grew pale, for a sound he heard, 

 As if the graves of the sea were stirr'd ; 

 And a voice came from the forest deep, 

 Like a rushing of wings in the time of sleep, 

 And a storm of pallid and ghastly light 

 Was scatter'd like foam on the darken'd night, 

 Making the spectre trees look white ! 

 And anon there bursts a lurid glare 

 From ten thousand banners upon the air, 

 And the frighted sky seemed rent asunder 

 By the mingling storm of fire and thunder ! 



The heaven was black and now it is red, 

 What aileth the great King Ethelred. 

 That with lifted arm and straining eye 

 He stretched his face unto the sky ? 



