SEA SPRAY ^ SMOKE DRIFT 



Nay ; read her handwriting, an thou wilt, 

 From her paramour's breast it fell." 



The knight in silence the letter read, 

 Oh ! the characters well he knew ! 



And his face might have matched the face of 

 the dead, 

 So ashen white was its hue ! 



Then he tore the parchment, shred by shred. 

 And the strips in the flames he threw. 



And he muttered, ** Densely those shadows fall 

 In the copse where the alders thicken ; 



There she bade him come to her, once for all, — 

 Now, I well may shudder and sicken ; — 



Gramercy ! that hand so white and small, 

 How strongly it must have stricken! " 

 • . . . . 



At midnight hour, in the western tower. 

 Alone with the dead man there, 



Lady Mabel kneels, nor heeds nor feels 

 The shock of the rushing air. 



Though the gusts that pass through the riven 



orlass 



Have scattered her raven hair. 



66 



