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(From Madoc)
THEN Madoc took | |
| His host aside, and in his private ear | |
| Told him the purport, and wherein his help | |
| Was needed. Night came on; the hearth was heapt, | |
| The women went to rest. They twain, the while, | 5 |
| Sate at the board, and while the untasted bowl | |
| Stood by them, watched the glass whose falling sands | |
| Told out the weary hours. The hour is come; | |
| Prince Madoc helmed his head, and from his neck | |
| He slung the bugle-horn; they took their shields, | 10 |
| And lance in hand went forth. And now arrived, | |
| The bolts give back before them, and the door | |
Rolls on its heavy hinge.
Beside the grave | |
| Stood Baldwin and the Prior, who, albeit | |
| Cambrian himself, in fear and awe obeyed | 15 |
| The lordly Primate’s will. They stood and watched | |
| Their ministers perform the irreverent work. | |
| And now with spade and mattock have they broken | |
| Into the house of death, and now have they | |
| From the stone coffin wrenched the iron cramps, | 20 |
| When sudden interruption startled them, | |
| And, clad in complete mail from head to foot, | |
| They saw the Prince come in. Their tapers gleamed | |
| Upon his visage, as he wore his helm | |
| Open; and when in that pale countenance— | 25 |
| For the strong feeling blanched his cheek—they saw | |
| His father’s living lineaments, a fear | |
| Like ague shook them. But anon that fit | |
| Of scared imagination to the sense | |
| Of other peril yielded, when they heard | 30 |
| Prince Madoc’s dreadful voice. “Stay!” he exclaimed, | |
| As now they would have fled; “stir not a man, | |
| Or if I once put breath into this horn, | |
| All Wales will hear, as if dead Owen called | |
| For vengeance from that grave. Stir not a man, | 35 |
| Or not a man shall live! The doors are watched, | |
And ye are at my mercy!”
But at that, | |
| Baldwin from the altar seized the crucifix, | |
| And held it forth to Madoc, and cried out, | |
| “He who strikes me strikes Him; forbear, on pain | 40 |
Of endless—”
“Peace!” quoth Madoc, “and profane not | |
| The holy cross with those polluted hands | |
| Of midnight sacrilege! Peace! I harm thee not; | |
| Be wise, and thou art safe. For thee, thou know’st, | |
| Prior, that if thy treason were divulged, | 45 |
| David would hang thee on thy steeple-top, | |
| To feed the steeple daws: obey and live! | |
| Go, bring fine linen and a coffer meet | |
| To bear these relics; and do ye, meanwhile, | |
Proceed upon your work.”
They at his word | 50 |
| Raised the stone cover, and displayed the dead, | |
| In royal grave-clothes habited, his arms | |
| Crossed on the breast, with precious gums and spice | |
| Fragrant, and incorruptibly preserved. | |
| At Madoc’s bidding, round the corpse they wrap | 55 |
| The linen web, fold within fold involved; | |
| They laid it in the coffer, and with cloth | |
| At head and foot filled every interval | |
| And prest it down compact; they closed the lid, | |
| And Madoc with his signet sealed it thrice. | 60 |
| Then said he to his host, “Bear thou at dawn | |
| This treasure to the ships. My father’s bones | |
| Shall have their resting-place where mine one day | |
| May moulder by their side.” | |
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