| |
| IT was the time when lilies blow, | |
| And clouds are highest up in air, | |
| Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe | |
| To give his cousin, Lady Clare. | |
| |
| I trow they did not part in scorn: | 5 |
| Lovers long-betrothed were they: | |
| They too will wed the morrow morn: | |
| God’s blessing on the day! | |
| |
| “He does not love me for my birth, | |
| Nor for my lands so broad and fair; | 10 |
| He loves me for my own true worth, | |
| And that is well,” said Lady Clare. | |
| |
| In there came old Alice the nurse, | |
| Said, “Who was this that went from thee?” | |
| “It was my cousin,” said Lady Clare, | 15 |
| “To-morrow he weds with me.” | |
| |
| “O God be thanked!” said Alice the nurse, | |
| “That all comes round so just and fair: | |
| Lord Ronald is heir of all your lands, | |
| And you are not the Lady Clare.” | 20 |
| |
| “Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse?” | |
| Said Lady Clare, “that ye speak so wild?” | |
| “As God ’s above,” said Alice the nurse, | |
| “I speak the truth! you are my child. | |
| |
| “The old Earl’s daughter died at my breast; | 25 |
| I speak the truth, as I live by bread! | |
| I buried her like my own sweet child, | |
| And put my child in her stead.” | |
| |
| “Falsely, falsely have ye done, | |
| O mother,” she said, “if this be true, | 30 |
| To keep the best man under the sun | |
| So many years from his due.” | |
| |
| “Nay, now, my child,” said Alice the nurse, | |
| “But keep the secret for your life, | |
| And all you have will be Lord Ronald’s, | 35 |
| When you are man and wife.” | |
| |
| “If I ’m a beggar born,” she said, | |
| “I will speak out, for I dare not lie, | |
| Pull off, pull off, the brooch of gold, | |
| And fling the diamond necklace by.” | 40 |
| |
| “Nay now, my child,” said Alice the nurse, | |
| “But keep the secret all ye can.” | |
| She said, “Not so: but I will know | |
| If there be any faith in man.” | |
| |
| “Nay now, what faith?” said Alice the nurse, | 45 |
| “The man will cleave unto his right.” | |
| “And he shall have it,” the lady replied, | |
| “Tho’ I should die to-night.” | |
| |
| “Yet give one kiss to your mother dear! | |
| Alas, my child, I sinned for thee.” | 50 |
| “O mother, mother, mother,” she said, | |
| “So strange it seems to me. | |
| |
| “Yet here ’s a kiss for my mother dear, | |
| My mother dear, if this be so, | |
| And lay your hand upon my head, | 55 |
| And bless me, mother, ere I go.” | |
| |
| She clad herself in a russet gown, | |
| She was no longer Lady Clare: | |
| She went by dale and she went by down, | |
| With a single rose in her hair. | 60 |
| |
| The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought | |
| Leapt up from where she lay, | |
| Dropt her head in the maiden’s hand, | |
| And followed her all the way. | |
| |
| Down stept Lord Ronald from his tower: | 65 |
| “O Lady Clare, you shame your worth! | |
| Why come you drest like a village maid, | |
| That are the flower of the earth?” | |
| |
| “If I come drest like a village maid, | |
| I am but as my fortunes are: | 70 |
| I am a beggar born,” she said, | |
| “And not the Lady Clare.” | |
| |
| “Play me no tricks,” said Lord Ronald, | |
| “For I am yours in word and in deed. | |
| Play me no tricks,” said Lord Ronald, | 75 |
| “Your riddle is hard to read.” | |
| |
| O and proudly stood she up! | |
| Her heart within her did not fail: | |
| She looked into Lord Ronald’s eyes, | |
| And told him all her nurse’s tale. | 80 |
| |
| He laughed a laugh of merry scorn: | |
| He turned and kissed her where she stood: | |
| “If you are not the heiress born, | |
| And I,” said he, “the next in blood— | |
| |
| “If you are not the heiress born, | 85 |
| And I,” said he, “the lawful heir, | |
| We two will wed to-morrow morn, | |
| And you shall still be Lady Clare.” | |
| |
