Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/10

2 Joy sparkled in the prancing Courser's eyes;

The horse and horsemen are a happy pair;

But, though Sir Walter like a falcon flies,

There is a doleful silence in the air.

A rout this morning left Sir Walter's Hall,

That as they gallop'd made the echoes roar;

But horse and man are vanish'd, one and all;

Such race, I think, was never seen before.

Sir Walter, restless as a veering wind,

Calls to the few tired dogs that yet remain:

Brach, Swift and Music, noblest of their kind,

Follow, and weary up the mountain strain.

The Knight halloo'd, he chid and cheerd them on

With suppliant gestures and upbraidings stern;

But breath and eye-sight fail, and, one by one,

The dogs are stretch'd among the mountain fern.