Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/42

34 And every man who saw her there Went down upon his knee; Behind her came Earl Roderick, All pitiful to see.

And in his trembling hand the helm From his uncovered brow; And ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘to love her well, And know it only now!’

So he did walk while she did ride Through all the town away, For greater than Earl Roderick She did become that day.

Now have I said how the heart of the Black Earl woke to love, and then was humbled, as the ancient crone had foretold; but of his sorrowful years, his desperate danger of eternal loss and his after-salvation, must I likewise tell, if the story would be pitiful in the ending.

Therefore shall I lay my harp aside, and so go back in my telling.

And I bid thee remember how the little