Gathers herself from out her trance;
Her limbs relax, her countenance
Grows sad and soft; the smooth thin lids
315 Close o'er her eyes; and tears she sheds?
Large tears that leave the lashes bright!
And oft the while she seems to smile
As infants at a sudden light!
Yea, she doth smile, and she doth weep,
320 Like a youthful hermitess,
Beauteous in a wilderness,
1. Tarn, a mountain pool. 2. Elevated moor, or hill.
.
CHRISTABEL / 45 7
Who, praying always, prays in sleep.
And, if she move unquietly,
Perchance, 'tis but the blood so free,
325 Comes back and tingles in her feet.
No doubt, she hath a vision sweet.
What if her guardian spirit 'twere?
What if she knew her mother near?
But this she knows, in joys and woes,
330 That saints will aid if men will call:
For the blue sky bends over all!
Part 2
'Each matin bell,' the Baron saith,
'Knells us back to a world of death.'
These words Sir Leoline first said,
335 When he rose and found his lady dead:
These words Sir Leoline will say,
Many a morn to his dying day!
And hence the custom and law began, That still at dawn the sacristan,3
340 Who duly pulls the heavy bell, Five and forty beads must tell4 Between each stroke?a warning knell,
Which not a soul can choose but hear From Bratha Head to Wyndermere.5
345 Saith Bracy the bard, 'So let it knell!
And let the drowsy sacristan
Still count as slowly as he can! There is no lack of such, I ween,' believe
As well fill up the space between.
350 In Langdale Pike? and Witch's Lair, Peak And Dungeon-ghyll6 so foully rent, With ropes of rock and bells of air
Three sinful sextons' ghosts are pent,
Who all give back, one after t'other,
355 The death-note to their living brother;
And oft too, by the knell offended,
Just as their one! two! three! is ended,
The devil mocks the doleful tale
With a merry peal from Borodale.'
360 The air is still! through mist and cloud
That merry peal comes ringing loud;
And Geraldine shakes off her dread,
And rises lightly from the bed;
