The Legend of the Haunted Tree

“Deep is the bliss of the belted Knight,When he kisses at dawn the silken glove,And goes, in his glittering armour dight,To shiver a lance for his lady-love!

Lightly he couches the beaming spear;His mistress sits with her maidens by,Watching the speed of his swift career,With a whispered prayer, and a murmured sigh.

Far from me is the gazing throng,The blazoned shield, and the nodding plume;Nothing is mine but a worthless song,A joyless life, and a nameless tomb.”

“Nay, dearest Wilfred, lay like this,On such an eve, is much amiss;Our mirth beneath the new May moonShould echoed be by livelier tune.What need to thee of mail and crest,Or foot in stirrup, spear in rest?Over far mountains and deep seas,Earth hath no fairer fields than these;And who, in Beauty’s gaudiest bowers,Can love thee with more love than ours?”

The Minstrel turned with a moody lookFrom that sweet scene of guiltless glee;From the old who talked beside the brook,And the young who danced beneath the tree.Coldly he shrank from the gentle maid,From the chiding look and the pleading tone;And he passed from the old elm’s hoary shade,And followed the forest path alone.One little sigh, one pettish glance,--And the girl comes back to her playmates now,And takes her place in the merry dance,With a slower step and a sadder brow.

“My soul is sick,” saith the wayward boy,“Of the peasant’s grief, and the peasant’s joy.I cannot breathe on from day to day,Like the insects, which our wise men sayIn the crevice of the cold rock dwell,Till their shape is the shape of their dungeon cell;In the dull repose of our changeless life,I long for passion, I long for strife,As in the calm the mariner sighsFor rushing waves and groaning skies.Oh for the lists, the lists of fame!Oh for the herald’s glad acclaim!For floating pennon, and prancing steed,And Beauty’s wonder at Manhood’s deed!”

Beneath an ancient oak he lay;More years than man can count, they say,On the verge of the dun and solemn wood,Through sunshine and storm that oak had stood.Many a loving, laughing sprite,Tended the branches by day and by night,And the leaves of its age were as fresh and as greenAs the leaves of its early youth had been.Pure of thought should the mortal beWho sleeps beneath the Haunted Tree.That night the Minstrel laid him downEre his brow relaxed its sullen frown;And slumber had bound his eyelids fast,Ere the evil wish from his soul had passed.

A song on the sleeper’s ear descended,A song it was pain to hear, and pleasure,So strangely wrath and love were blendedIn every note of the mystic measure.

“I know thee, child of earth;The morning of thy birth,In through the lattice did my chariot glide;I saw thy father weepO’er thy first wild sleep,I rocked thy cradle when thy mother died.

And I have seen thee gazeUpon these birks and braes,Which are my kingdoms, with irreverent scorn;And heard thee pour reproofUpon the vine-clad roof,Beneath whose peaceful shelter thou wert born.

I bind thee in the snareOf thine unholy prayer;I seal thy forehead with a viewless seal:I give into thine handThe buckler and the brand,And clasp the golden spur upon thy heel.When thou hast made thee wiseIn the sad lore of sighs,When the world’s visions fail thee and forsakeReturn, return to me--And to my haunted tree;--The charm hath bound thee now: Sir Knight, awake!”

Sir Isumbras, in doubt and dread,From his feverish sleep awoke,And started up from his grassy bedUnder the ancient oak.And he called the page who held his spear,And, “Tell me, boy,” quoth he,“How long have I been slumbering here,Beneath the greenwood tree?”--

“Ere thou didst sleep, I chanced to throwA stone into the rill;And the ripple that disturbed its flowIs on its surface still.Ere thou didst sleep, thou bad’st me singKing Arthur’s favourite lay;And the first echo of the stringHas hardly died away.”

“How strange is sleep!” the young Knight said,As he clasped the helm upon his head,And, mounting again his courser black,To his gloomy tower rode slowly back:“How strange is sleep! when his dark spell liesOn the drowsy lids of human eyes,The years of a life will float alongIn the compass of a page’s song.Methought I lived in a pleasant vale,The haunt of the lark and the nightingale,Where the summer rose had a brighter hue,And the noon-day sky a clearer blue,And the spirit of man in age and youthA fonder love, and a firmer truth.And I lived on, a fair-haired boy,In that sweet vale of tranquil joy;Until at last my vain capriceGrew weary of its bliss and peace.

And one there was, most dear and fairOf all that smiled around me there,A gentle maid, with a cloudless face,And a form so full of fairy grace,Who, when I turned with scornful spleen,From feast in bower, or dance on green,Would humour all my wayward will,And love me, and forgive me still.Even now, methinks, her smile of lightIs there before me, mild and bright;And I hear her voice of fond reproofBetween the beats of my palfrey’s hoof.’Tis idle all: but I could weep;--Alas!” said the Knight, “how strange is sleep!”

He struck with his spear the brazen plateThat gleamed before the castle gate;The torch threw high its waves of flame,As forth the watchful menials came;They lighted the way to the banquet-hall;They hung the shield upon the wall;They spread the board, and they filled the bowl,And the phantoms passed from his troubled soul.

Sir Isumbras was ever foundWhere blows were struck for glory;There sate not at the Table RoundA Knight more famed in story.The King on his throne would turn aboutTo see his courser prancing;And when Sir Launcelot was out,The Queen would praise his dancing.

He quite wore out his father’s spurs,Performing valour’s duties;Destroying mighty sorcerers,Avenging injured beauties,And crossing many a trackless sand,And rescuing people’s daughtersFrom dragons that infest the land,And whales that walk the waters.He throttled lions by the score,And giants by the dozen;And, for his skill in lettered lore,They called him “Merlin’s Cousin.”

A score of steeds, with bit and rein,Stood ready in his stable;An ox was every morning slain,And roasted for his table:And he had friends, all brave and tall,And crowned with praise and laurel,Who kindly feasted in his hall,And tilted in his quarrel;And minstrels came and sang his fameIn very rugged verses;And they were paid with wine, and game,And rings, and cups, and purses.

And he loved a lady of high degree,Faith’s fortress, Beauty’s flower;A countess for her maid had she,And a kingdom for her dower;And a brow whose frowns were vastly grand,And an eye of sunlit brightness;And a swan-like neck, and an arm and handOf most bewitching whiteness;And a voice of music, whose sweet tonesCould most divinely prattleOf battered casques, and broken bones,And all the bliss of battle.He wore her scarf in many a fray,He trained her hawks and ponies,And filled her kitchen every dayWith leverets and conies;He loved, and he was loved again:--I won’t waste time in proving,There is no pleasure like the painOf being loved, and loving.

Dame Fortune is a fickle gipsy,And always blind, and often tipsy;Sometimes for years and years together,She’ll bless you with the sunniest weather,Bestowing honour, pudding, pence,You can’t imagine why or whence;--Then in a moment--Presto, pass!--Your joys are withered like the grass;You find your constitution vanish,Almost as quickly as the Spanish;The murrain spoils your flocks and fleeces;The dry-rot pulls your house to pieces;Your garden raises only weeds;Your agent steals your title-deeds;Your banker’s failure stuns the city;Your father’s will makes Sugden witty;Your daughter, in her beauty’s bloom,Goes off to Gretna with the groom;And you, good man, are left alone,To battle with the gout and stone.

Ere long, Sir Isumbras beganTo be a sad and thoughtful man:They said the glance of an evil eyeHad been on the Knight’s prosperity:Less swift on the quarry his falcon went,Less true was his hound on the wild deer’s scent,And thrice in the lists he came to the earthBy the luckless chance of a broken girth.And Poverty soon in her rags was seenAt the board where Plenty erst had been;And the guests smiled not as they smiled before,And the song of the minstrel was heard no more;And a base ingrate, who was his foe,Because, a little month ago,He had cut him down, with friendly ardour,From a rusty hook in an ogre’s larder,Invented an atrocious fable,And libelled his fame at the royal table:And she at last, the worshipped one,For whom his valorous deeds were done,Who had heard his vows, and worn his jewels,And made him fight so many duels--She too, when Fate’s relentless wheelDeprived him of the Privy Seal,Bestowed her smiles upon another,And gave his letters to her mother.

Fortune and fame--he had seen them depart,With the silent pride of a valiant heart:Traitorous friends--he had passed them by,With a haughty brow and a stifled sigh.Boundless and black might roll the sea,O’er which the course of his bark must be;But he saw, through the storms that frowned above,One guiding light, and the light was Love.Now all was dark; the doom was spoken!His wealth all spent, and his heart half broken;Poor youth! he had no earthly hope,Except in laudanum, or a rope.

He ordered out his horse, and tried,As the leech advised, a gentle ride;A pleasant path he took,Where the turf, all bright with the April showers,Was spangled with a hundred flowers,Beside a murmuring brook.Never before had he roved that way;And now, on a sunny first of May,He chose the turning, you may guess,Not for the laughing lovelinessOf turf, or flower, or stream; but onlyBecause it looked extremely lonely.

He had wandered, musing, scarce a mile,In his melancholy mood,When, peeping over a rustic stile,He saw a little village smile,Embowered in thick wood.There were small cottages, arrayedIn the delicate jasmine’s fragrant shade;And gardens, whence the rose’s bloomLoaded the gale with rich perfume;And there were happy hearts; for allIn that bright nook kept festival,And welcomed in the merry MayWith banquet and with roundelay.Sir Isumbras sate gazing there,With folded arms and mournful air;He fancied--’twas an idle whim--That the village looked like a home to him.

And now a gentle maiden came,Leaving her sisters and their game,And wandered up the vale;Sir Isumbras had never seenA thing so fair except the Queen;--But out on Passion’s doubts and fears!Her beautiful eyes were full of tears;Her cheeks were wan and pale.None courted her stay of the joyous throng,As she passed from the group alone;And he listened,--which was very wrong,--And heard her singing a lively songIn a very dismal tone:

“Deep is the bliss of the belted Knight,When he kisses at dawn the silken glove,And goes in his glittering armour dight,To shiver a lance for his lady-love!”

That thrilling voice, so soft and clear,Was it familiar to his ear?And those delicious drooping eyes,As blue and as pure as the summer skies;Had he, indeed, in other days,Been blessed in the light of their holy rays?

He knew not; but his knee he bentBefore her in most knightly fashion,And grew superbly eloquentAbout her beauty, and his passion.He said that she was very fair,And that she warbled like a linnet,And that he loved her, though he ne’erHad looked upon her till that minute;He grieved to mention that a JewHad seized for debt his grand pavilion,And he had little now, ’twas true,To offer, but a heart and pillion.

But what of that? In many a fight,--Though he who shouldn’t say it, said it,--He still had borne him like a knight,And had his share of blows and credit;And if she would but condescendTo meet him at the priest’s to-morrow,And be henceforth his guide, his friend,In every toil, in every sorrow,They’d sail instanter from the Downs;His hands just now were quite at leisure;And if she fancied foreign crowns,He’d win them,--with the greatest pleasure.

“A year is gone,” the damsel sigh’d,But blushed not, as she so replied,--“Since one I loved,--alas, how wellHe knew not, knows not,--left our dell.Time brings to his deserted cotNo tidings of his after lot;But his weal or woe is still the themeOf my daily thought, and my nightly dream.Poor Alice is not proud or coy;But her heart is with her minstrel boy.”

Away from his arms the damsel bounded,And left him more and more confounded.He mused of the present, he mused of the past,And he felt that a spell was o’er him cast;He shed hot tears, he knew not why,And talked to himself and made reply;Till a calm o’er his troubled senses crept,And, as the daylight waned, he slept.Poor gentleman!--I need not sayBeneath an ancient oak he lay.

“He is welcome,”--o’er his bedThus the bounteous Fairy said:

“He has conned the lesson now;He has read the book of pain:There are furrows on his brow,I must make it smooth again.

Lo, I knock the spurs away;Lo, I loosen belt and brand;Hark, I hear the courser neighFor his stall in Fairy-land.

Bring the cap, and bring the vest;Buckle on his sandal shoon;Fetch his memory from the chestIn the treasury of the moon.

I have taught him to be wise,For a little maiden’s sake;--Lo, he opens his bright eyes,Softly, slowly:--Minstrel, wake!”

The sun has risen, and Wilfred is comeTo his early friends, and his cottage home.His hazel eyes and his locks of goldAre just as they were in the time of old;But a blessing has been on the soul within,For that is won from its secret sin,More loving now, and worthier loveOf men below, and of saints above.He reins a steed with a lordly air,Which makes his country cousins stare;And he speaks in a strange and courtly phrase,Though his voice is the voice of other days:But where he has learned to talk and ride,He will tell to none but his bonny Bride.