But while the old man sang, a mist of tears O'er Haroun's eyes had gathered; and a thoughtOh! many a sudden and remorseful thoughtOf his youth's once-loved friends, the martyred race, O'erflowed his softening heart. "Live! live!" he cried, "Thou faithful unto death! Live on, and still Speak of thy lords: they were a princely band!" THE SPANISH CHAPEL * "Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb, I MADE a mountain-brook my guide It lured me with a singing tone A dim and deeply-bosomed grove Such as the shadowy violets love, The fawn and forest-bee. * Suggested by a scene beautifully described in the Recollections of the Peninsula. THE SPANISH CHAPEL 117 The darkness of the chestnut-bough The bright stream reverently below And bore a music all subdued, For something viewlessly around In the soft gloom and whispery sound, While, sending forth a quiet gleam A pathway to that still retreat And there a sight-how strangely sweet! For on a brilliant bed of flowers, To sleep?-Oh! ne'er, on childhood's eye Did the warm living slumber lie With such a weight of rest! Yet still a tender crimson glow Its cheek's pure marble dyed"Twas but the light's faint streaming flow Through roses heaped beside. I stooped-the smooth round arm was chill, "Alas!" I cried, "fair faded thing! But then a voice came sweet and low- And in her still, clear, matron face, A shadowed image I could trace "Stranger! thou pitiest me," she said "But know, the time-worn heart may be THE KAISER'S FEAST 119 THE KAISER'S FEAST [LOUIS, Emperor of Germany, having put his brother, the Palsgrave Rodolphus, under the ban of the empire in the twelfth century, that unfortunate prince fled to England, where he died in neglect and poverty. "After his decease, his mother Matilda privately invited his children to return to Germany; and, by her mediation, during a season of festivity, when Louis kept wassail in the Castle of Heidelberg, the family of his brother presented themselves before him in the garb of suppliants, imploring pity and forgiveness. To this appeal the victor softened."-Miss Benger's Memoirs of the Queen of Bohemia.] THE Kaiser feasted in his hall- As it caught the glance of the torch's flame, Why fell there silence on the chord And suddenly from that rich board, Why rose the wassail band? The strings were hushed-the knights made way For the queenly mother's tread, As up the hall, in dark array, Two fair-haired boys she led. She led them even to the Kaiser's place, And still before him stood; Till, with strange wonder, o'er his face, And the clinging children by thy side "Well may a mourning vest be mine, And theirs, my son, my son! Look on the features of thy line In each fair little one! Though grief awhile within their eyes "And where is he, thy brother-where? He in thy home that grew, And smiling with his sunny hair, Ever to greet thee flew ? How would his arms thy neck entwine, My son oh, call these orphans thine! "What! from their gentle eyes doth naught Speak of thy childhood's hours, And smite thee with a tender thought Of thy dead father's towers? Kind was thy boyish heart and true, When reared together there, Through the old woods like fawns ye flewWhere is thy brother-where? |