Page:Hermit of Powis.pdf/6

 The Lady Arabella Stewart,

The fairest of our fair,

Has lost her heart, and to you Lord Earl,

Deny it if you dare.

But you are a true and a warlike lord,

And this is the choice we'll gie—

Either to marry the lady we've named,

Or swing like a rogue on a tree."

"My Liege! my Sire! my Sovereign Lord!

I’ve used no wizardrie,

And if I have won the heart of this maid,

The prize was unsought by me.

And if my choice be to wed or to hang,

My Sire, I must lose my life,

For how can I wed Lady Arabel Stewart,

And leave a better-loved wife?"

"And who may be this wife, Lord Earl,

That you hold so wondrous dear;

And how does it chance that the lady’s name

Should never have reachcdreached [sic] our carear [sic]?"

"My wife is not sprung from noble sires—

HcrHer [sic] kin are of low degree,

But dear as a queen to her royal spouse

Is the choice of my heart to me."

"A peasant can be but a leman, my Lord,

To one that is nobly born,

And, the word of a King, you’ll marry our ward,

Or swing ere a second grey morn!"

The brave Lord Leslie left the King,

A doleful man I ween;

But a change took place in his comely faeeface [sic]

That day ere the fall of e'cne'en [sic].

That day was holden a tournament,

The Queen was taken ill—

And who but the Lady Arabel Stewart

Was chosen her placcplace [sic] to fill.

Right wcllwell [sic] she played hcrher [sic] Queenly part,

And charmed the hearts of a';

But for every smile she gave the rest

She gave Lord LeslicLeslie [sic] twa.