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maid. The sentence usually imposed for the offence is read 

 to the criminal : 



Tied to the hornet's shardy wings ; 



Tossed on the pricks of nettles' stings; 



Or seven long ages doomed to dwell 



With the lazy worm in the walnut-shell ; 



Or every night to writhe and bleed 



Beneath the tread of the centipede ; 



Or bound in a cobweb dungeon dim, 



Your jailer a spider huge and grim, 



Amid the carrion bodies to lie, 



Of the worm, and the bug, and the murdered fly: 



These it had been your lot to bear, 



Had a stain been found on the earthly fair. 



In consideration of the "sinless mind" of the maiden, the 

 penalty is softened ; and a pardon is granted upon two condi- 

 tions. The offending sprite must first capture a drop of water 

 as it is flung from the strirgeon in his graceful leap in the 

 moonlit sea; this will cleanse the assoiling of his wings. Next 

 he must watch in the heavens for a shooting star, and pursue 

 its flight until he can capture the last spark sprayed forth in its 

 gleaming flight ; this spark alone can rekindle his extinguished 

 torch. 



The goblin marked his monarch well, 



He spake not, but he bowed him low, 

 Then plucked a crimson colen-bell, 



And turned him round in act to go. 

 The way is long, he cannot fly, 



His soiled wing has lost its power, 

 And he winds, adown the mountain high, 



For many a sore and weary hour. 

 Through dreary beds of tangled fern, 

 Through groves of nightshade dark and dern, 

 Over the grass and through the brake, 

 Where toils the ant and sleeps the snake ; 



For rugged and dim was his onward track, 

 But there came a spotted toad in sight, 



And he laughed as he jumped upon her back ; 

 He bridled her mouth with a silk-weed twist; 



He lashed her side with an osier thong; 

 And now through evening's dewy mist, 



With leap and spring they bound along. 



