CLI THE COLUBRIAD Close by the threshold of a door nail'd fast, Not much concern'd to know what they did there, Caused me to stop, and to exclaim, 'What's this?' A viper, long as Count de Grasse's queue. Her whisker'd face, she asked him, 'Who are you? For long ere now it should have been rehearsed, 'Twas in the garden that I found him first. Even there I found him-there the full-grown cat, With outstretch'd hoe I slew him at the door, CLII THE PRIEST AND THE MULBERRYTREE Did you hear of the curate who mounted his mare, And merrily trotted along to the fair? Of creature more tractable none ever heard, In the height of her speed she would stop at a word; But again with a word, when the curate said, Hey, She put forth her mettle and gallop'd away. As near to the gates of the city he rode, The curate was hungry and thirsty to boot; He shrunk from the thorns, though he long'd for the fruit; With a word he arrested his courser's keen speed, And he stood up erect on the back of his steed; On the saddle he stood while the creature stood still, And he gather'd the fruit till he took his good fill. 'Sure never,' he thought, 'was a creature so rare, So docile, so true, as my excellent mare; Lo, here now I stand,' and he gazed all around, 'As safe and as steady as if on the ground; Yet how had it been, if some traveller this way, Had, dreaming no mischief, but chanced to cry, Hey ?' He stood with his head in the mulberry-tree, At the sound of the word the good mare made a push, And down went the priest in the wild-briar bush. CLIII THE PRIDE OF YOUTH Proud Maisie is in the wood, Walking so early; Sweet Robin sits on the bush Singing so rarely. X 'Tell me, thou bonny bird, When shall I marry me?' 'When six braw gentlemen Kirkward shall carry ye. 'Who makes the bridal bed, That delves the grave duly. 'The glow-worm o'er grave and stone Shall light thee steady; The owl from the steeple sing Welcome, proud lady.' Sir W. Scott CLIV SIR LANCELOT DU LAKE When Arthur first in court began, By force of arms great victories wan Then into England straight he came And were of his round table: And he had jousts and tournaments, Wherein some knights did far excel But one Sir Lancelot du Lake, He for his deeds and feats of arms When he had rested him awhile, He armed rode in a forest wide, And met a damsel fair Who told him of adventures great, ‘Such would I find,' quoth Lancelot : 'For that cause came I hither.' 'Thou seem'st,' quoth she, 'a knight full good And I will bring thee thither, 'Whereas a mighty knight doth dwell, That now is of great fame: Therefore tell me what wight thou art, And what may be thy name.' 'My name is Lancelot du Lake.' "Who has in prison three-score knights Knights of King Arthur's court they be, |