shameful block must bend: thereof is no remeed."

XVI.
"Good King, my hand thou mayst command, else treason blots my name!
I'll take the life of my dear wife--(God! mine be not the blame!)
Alas! that young and sinless heart for others' sin should bleed!
Good King, in sorrow I depart."----"May God your errand speed!"--

XVII.
In sorrow he departed, dejectedly he rode
The weary journey from that place, unto his own abode;
He grieved for his fair Countess, dear as his life was she;
Sore grieved he for that lady, and for his children three.

XVIII.
The one was yet an infant upon its mother's breast,
For though it had three nurses, it liked her milk the best;
The others were young children, that had but little wit,
Hanging about their mother's knee while nursing she did sit.

XIX.
"Alas!" he said, when he had come within a little space,
"How shall I brook the cheerful look of my kind lady's face?
To see her coming forth in glee to meet me in my hall,
When she so soon a corpse must be, and I the cause of all!"

XX.
Just then he saw her at the door with all her babes appear--
(The little page had run before to tell his lord was near)
"Now welcome home, my lord, my life!--Alas! you droop your head
Tell, Count Alarcos, tell your wife, what makes your eyes so red?"--

XXI.
"I'll tell you all--I'll tell you all: It is not yet the hour;
We'll sup together in the hall--I'll tell you in your bower."
The lady brought forth what she had, and down beside him sate;
He sat beside her pale and sad, but neither drank nor ate.

XXII.
The children to his side were led (he loved to have them so),
Then on the board he laid his head, and out his tears did flow:--
"I fain would sleep--I fain would sleep,"--the Count Alarcos said:--
Alas! be sure, that sleep was none that night within their bed.

XXIII.
They came together to the bower where they were used to rest,
None with them but the little babe that was upon the breast:
The Count had barred the chamber doors, they ne'er were barred till then;
"Unhappy lady," he began, "and I most lost of men!"

XXIV.
"Now, speak not so, my noble lord, my husband and my life,
Unhappy never can she be, that is Alarcos' wife."--
"Alas! unhappy lady, 'tis but little that you know,
For in that very word you've said is gathered all your woe.

XXV.
"Long since I loved a lady,--long since I oaths did plight,
To be that lady's husband, to love her day and night;
Her father is