Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/394

SONGS AND BALLADS From gray Kimbolton's castle-gate

She rode, each summer's day,

And blithely led the greenwood chase

With hawk and hound away.

And ever handsome Montagu,

Her Master of the Horse,

To guard his mistress kept her pace

O'er heather, turf, and gorse.

O, who so brave as Montagu

To leap the hedges clear!

And who so fleet as he to find

The coverts of the deer!

And who so wild as Montagu,

To seek his sovereign's love!

More hopeless than a child, who craves

The brightest star above.

Day after day her presence fed

The fever at his heart;

Yet loyally the young knight scorned

To play a traitor's part.

Only, when at her palfrey's side

He bowed him by command,

Lightening her footfall to the earth,

He pressed her dainty hand;

A tender touch, as light as love,

Soft as his heart's desire;

But aye, in Katherine's artless blood,

It woke no answering fire.

King Hal to gray Kimbolton came

Erelong, and true love's sign, 364