Page:The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats, 1899.djvu/165

Rh Hyena foemen, and hot-blooded lords,

Whose very dogs would execrations howl

Against his lineage: not one breast affords

Him any mercy, in that mansion foul,

Save one old beldame, weak in body and in soul.

Ah, happy chance! the aged creature came,

Shuffling along with ivory-headed wand,

To where he stood, hid from the torch's flame,

Behind a broad hall-pillar, far beyond

The sound of merriment and chorus bland:

He startled her; but soon she knew his face,

And grasp'd his fingers in her palsied hand,

Saying, 'Mercy, Porphyro! hie thee from this place;

They are all here to-night, the whole bloodthirsty race!

Get hence! get hence! there 's dwarfish Hildebrand;

He had a fever late, and in the fit

He cursed thee and thine, both house and land:

Then there 's that old Lord Maurice, not a whit

More tame for his gray hairs—Alas me! flit!

Flit like a ghost away.'—'Ah, Gossip dear,

We're safe enough; here in this arm-chair sit,

And tell me how'—'Good Saints! not here, not here;

Follow me, child, or else these stones will be thy bier.'

He follow'd through a lowly arched way,

Brushing the cobwebs with his lofty plume;

And as she mutter'd 'Well-a—well-a-day!'

He found him in a little moonlight room,

Pale, latticed, chill, and silent as a tomb.

'Now tell me where is Madeline,' said he,

'O tell me, Angela, by the holy loom

Which none but secret sisterhood may see,

When they St. Agnes' wool are weaving piously.'

'St. Agnes! Ah! it is St. Agnes' Eve—

Yet men will murder upon holy days:

Thou must hold water in a witch's sieve,

And be liege-lord of all the Elves and Fays,

To venture so: it fills me with amaze

To see thee, Porphyro!—St. Agnes' Eve!

God's help! my lady fair the conjuror plays

This very night: good angels her deceive!

But let me laugh awhile, I 've mickle time to grieve.'

Feebly she laugheth in the languid moon,

While Porphyro upon her face doth look,

Like puzzled urchin on an aged crone

Who keepeth closed a wond'rous riddle-book,

As spectacled she sits in chimney nook.

But soon his eyes grew brilliant, when she told

His lady's purpose; and he scarce could brook

Tears, at the thought of those enchantments cold,

And Madeline asleep in lap of legends old.

Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose,

Flushing his brow, and in his pained heart