"Since ye gave me blame herein"--
_Toll slowly_--
"That a bridal such as mine should lack gauds to make it fine,
Come and shrive me from that sin.

XXXVII.

"It is three months gone to-day since I gave mine hand away":
_Toll slowly._
"Bring the gold and bring the gem, we will keep bride-state in them,
While we keep the foe at bay.

XXXVIII.

"On your arms I loose mine hair; comb it smooth and crown it fair":
_Toll slowly._
"I would look in purple pall from this lattice down the wall,
And throw scorn to one that's there!"

XXXIX.

Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west--
_Toll slowly._
On the tower the castle's lord leant in silence on his sword,
With an anguish in his breast.

XL.

With a spirit-laden weight did he lean down passionate:
_Toll slowly._
They have almost sapped the wall,--they will enter therewithal
With no knocking at the gate.

XLI.

Then the sword he leant upon, shivered, snapped upon the stone--
_Toll slowly._
"Sword," he thought, with inward laugh, "ill thou servest for a staff
When thy nobler use is done!

XLII.

"Sword, thy nobler use is done! tower is lost, and shame begun!"--
_Toll slowly._
"If we met them in the breach, hilt to hilt or speech to speech,
We should die there, each for one.

XLIII.

"If we met them at the wall, we should singly, vainly fall"--
_Toll slowly._
"But if _I_ die here alone,--then I die who am but one,
And die nobly for them all.

XLIV.

"Five true friends lie for my sake in the moat and in the brake"--
_Toll slowly._
"Thirteen warriors lie at rest with a black wound in the breast,
And not one of these will wake.

XLV.

"So, no more of this shall be! heart-blood weighs too heavily"--
_Toll slowly._
"And I could not sleep in grave, with the faithful and the brave
Heaped around and over me.

XLVI.

"Since young Clare a mother hath, and young Ralph a plighted faith"--