Puts on her silken vestments white,
3. Church officer who digs the graves and rings 5. These and the following names are of localities the bells. in the English Lake District.
4. Pray while 'telling' (keeping count on) the 6. Ravine forming the bed of a stream. beads of a rosary.
.
45 8 / SAMUE L TAYLO R COLERIDG E 365 And tricks her hair in lovely plight,0And nothing doubting of her spell Awakens the lady Christabel. 'Sleep you, sweet lady Christabel? I trust that you have rested well.' plait 370375380385 And Christabel awoke and spied The same who lay down by her side? O rather say, the same whom she Raised up beneath the old oak tree! Nay, fairer yet! and yet more fair! For she belike hath drunken deep Of all the blessedness of sleep! And while she spake, her looks, her air Such gentle thankfulness declare, That (so it seemed) her girded vests Grew tight beneath her heaving breasts. 'Sure I have sinned!' said Christabel, 'Now heaven be praised if all be well!' And in low faltering tones, yet sweet, Did she the lofty lady greet With such perplexity of mind As dreams too lively leave behind. 390So quickly she rose, and quickly arrayed Her maiden limbs, and having prayed That He, who on the cross did groan, Might wash away her sins unknown, She forthwith led fair Geraldine To meet her sire, Sir Leoline. 395The lovely maid and the lady tall Are pacing both into the hall, And pacing on through page and groom, Enter the Baron's presence room. 400The Baron rose, and while he prest His gentle daughter to his breast, With cheerful wonder in his eyes The lady Geraldine espies, And gave such welcome to the same, As might beseem so bright a dame! 405But when he heard the lady's tale, And when she told her father's name, Why waxed Sir Leoline so pale, Murmuring o'er the name again, Lord Roland de Vaux of Tryermaine? 410Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
.
CHRISTABEL / 45 9
And to be wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain.
And thus it chanced, as I divine,
415 With Roland and Sir Leoline.
Each spake words of high disdain
And insult to his heart's best brother:
They parted?ne'er to meet again!
But never either found another
420 To free the hollow heart from paining?
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder;
A dreary sea now flows between;?
But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
425 Shall wholly do away, I ween,
The marks of that which once hath been.
Sir Leoline, a moment's space,
Stood gazing on the damsel's face:
And the youthful Lord of Tryermaine
4BO Came back upon his heart again.
0 then the Baron forgot his age,
His noble heart swelled high with rage;
He swore by the wounds in Jesu's side,
He would proclaim it far and wide
435 With trump and solemn heraldry,
That they who thus had wronged the dame,
Were base as spotted infamy!
'And if they dare deny the same,
My herald shall appoint a week,
440 And let the recreant traitors seek
My tourney court7?that there and then
1 may dislodge their reptile souls
From the bodies and forms of men!'
He spake: his eye in lightning rolls!
445 For the lady was ruthlessly seized; and he kenned
