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Save the boss of the shield of Sir Leoline tall, Which hung in a murky old nitch in the wall. O softly tread, said Christabel,

My father seldom sleepeth well.

Sweet Christabel her feet she bares,

And they are creeping up the stairs;
Now in glimmer, and now in gloom,
And now they pass the Baron's room,
As still as death with stifled breath!

And now have reach'd her chamber door;
And now with eager feet press down
The rushes of her chamber floor.

The moon shines dim in the open air,

And not a moonbeam enters here.

But they without its light can see

The chamber carv'd so curiously,

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Carv'd with figures strange and sweet,

All made out of the carver's brain,

For a lady's chamber meet:

The lamp with twofold silver chain

Is fasten'd to an angel's feet.

The silver lamp burns dead and dim ;
But Christabel the lamp will trim.

She trimm'd the lamp, and made it bright,

And left it swinging to and fro,

While Geraldine, in wretched plight,

Sank down upon the floor below.

O weary lady, Geraldine,

I

pray you, drink this cordial wine!

It is a wine of virtuous powers;

My mother made it of wild flowers.

And will your mother pity me,

Who am a maiden most forlorn?

Christabel answer'd-Woe is me!

She died the hour that I was born.

I have heard the gray-hair'd friar tell,
How on her death-bed she did say,
That she should hear the castle bell
Strike twelve upon my wedding day.
O mother dear! that thou wert here!
I would, said Geraldine, she were!

But soon with alter'd voice, said she-
"Off, wandering mother! Peak and pine!
"I have power to bid thee flee."
Alas! what ails poor Geraldine?

Why stares she with unsettled eye?
Can she the bodiless dead espy?

And why with hollow voice cries she,
Off, woman, off! this hour is mine—

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Though thou her guardian spirit be,

'Off, woman, off! 'tis given to me."

Then Christabel knelt by the lady's side,
And rais'd to heaven her eyes so blue—
Alas! said she, this ghastly ride-
Dear lady! it hath wilder'd you!

The lady wip'd her moist cold brow,
And faintly said, ""Tis over now!"

Again the wild-flower wine she drank :
Her fair large eyes 'gan glitter bright,
And from the floor whereon she sank,
The lofty lady stood upright:
She was most beautiful to see,

Like a lady of a far countrée.

And thus the lofty lady spake
All they, who live in the upper sky,

Do love you, holy Christabel!

And you love them, and for their sake

And for the good which me befel,

Even I in my degree will try,

Fair maiden, to requite you well.
But now unrobe yourself; for I

Must pray, ere yet in bed I lie.

Quoth Christabel, so let it be!

And as the lady bade, did she. Her gentle limbs did she undress, And lay down in her loveliness.

But thro' her brain of weal and woe So many thoughts mov'd to and fro, That vain it were her lids to close; So half-way from the bed she rose, And on her elbow did recline

To look at the lady Geraldine.

Beneath the lamp the lady bow'd,

And slowly roll'd her

eyes

around;

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