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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and

-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions

-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms

-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at

-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you

-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before

-using this eBook.

-

-Title: The End of Elfintown

-

-Author: Jane Barlow

-

-Illustrator: Laurence Housman

-

-Release Date: April 20, 2022 [eBook #67883]

-

-Language: English

-

-Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed

-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was

-             produced from images generously made available by The

-             Internet Archive)

-

-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***

-

-

-

-

-

-                            [Illustration:

-

-                              THE END OF

-                               ELFINTOWN

-

-                                  BY

-                              JANE BARLOW

-                            ILLUSTRATED BY

-                           LAURENCE HOUSMAN

-

-                                LONDON

-                            MACMILLAN & CO.

-                                 1894]

-

-

-

-

-                           I.--THE BUILDING

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

-

-    Now would that he who knew so well

-    Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,

-    And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,

-    And how their feud was ended,

-    Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,

-    Had writ in gold, as I in lead,

-    For men to learn why Fays be fled,

-    And whitherward they wended.

-

-      It hapt in ages far agone

-    A harmful spell was cast upon

-    That Elfin King, great Oberon,

-    And teen and trouble brought him;

-    And albeit none can track the skill

-    That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,

-    We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will

-    Such perilous mischief wrought him.

-

-    For she by magic showed him clear,

-    In mirroring crystal of her mere,

-    A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year

-    Ere yet its like were builded;

-    But thro’ her might of gramarie

-    She made the Elfin Prince to see

-    The grandest that on earth should be,

-    And most by wealth-wand gilded.

-

-    ’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size

-    For straiter range of Elfin eyes,

-    But else it had its mortal guise,

-    No sight, no stir omitted,

-    With tower and temple, and mart and street,

-    And prison and palace, all complete,

-    And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet

-    That hither thither flitted.

-

-      Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,

-    Admiring more, and more amazed,

-    Till, when the Witch its image razed,

-    Still in his heart it tarried,

-    (A secret that he might not tell),

-    And home unto his woodland dell

-    That city’s vision, like a spell,

-    O’er all his thoughts he carried.

-

-    And since that day he dwelled no more

-    In joyance blithe as theretofore,

-    But sadly aye himself he bore

-    Amid the sunniest shining;

-    Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,

-    Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;

-    He dreamed of rarer things than these,

-    And for their lack was pining.

-

-    From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,

-    From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,

-    He shifted oft his couch withal,

-    Yet still would chide his chamber,

-    And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,

-    And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;

-    The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,

-    And cowslip’s gawds of amber.

-

-      Hence, on his discontents to brood,

-    He sat one eve in sorry mood,

-    While whispering Elves around him stood,

-    And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;

-    When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,

-    He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,

-    Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay

-    Shall build as fair a city.”

-

-    And eagerly at morrow’s light

-    He hasted forth to choose a site,

-    Whereon should now be reared aright

-    Strong walls and storeys stately.

-    He found it soon: an earth-plot bare

-    Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;

-    No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,

-    Which pleased King Oberon greatly.

-

-      “For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen

-    No blade of grass, or glint of green,

-    But pavements ferly smooth and clean;

-    Small fear of footsteps tripping.”

-    Not far away a brook bobbed by:

-    “From thence,” he said, “we may supply

-    Our waterworks; and soothly I

-    Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”

-

-    Then hied him home amain, and shook

-    His drowsy Fays from every nook,

-    And bade them follow with him, and look

-    Where splendour should be springing;

-    And ere the earliest star blinked down

-    Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,

-    The first white pebble of Elfintown

-    He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.

-

-      And now, indeed, industrious days

-    Be risen upon the land of Fays,

-    Where every liege his Lord obeys,

-    And toils beside his neighbour.

-    They plied them late, they plied them soon,

-    In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,

-    Nay, oft the wan light of a moon

-    Swam in to lamp their labour.

-

-    No more round Faery-ring they swept

-    In mazy measures ere they slept;

-    But, silent, to his lair each crept,

-    Limb wearied, sinews aching.

-    No more they couched in campion’s cell,

-    Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;

-    Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,

-    Brief rest from task-work taking.

-

-      Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,

-

-[Illustration:

-

-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]

-

-    With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,

-    Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks

-    To helves of flax-haulm fitted;

-    On business more than one can name

-    From dawn to dusk they went and came;

-    None durst his share refuse for shame,

-    Nor would with sloth be twitted.

-

-    And brutish things, that creep and crawl

-    Stingless and strong, they did enthrall

-    To burdens bear, and pull and haul,

-    Along the highways goaded;

-    There might ye see the Beetle black

-    Come lumbering down the dusty track,

-    With pebble-blocks piled on his back,

-    Or mossy twig-beams loaded.

-

-    And oft they ponderous weights would heap

-    On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,

-    For many a tedious yard must creep,

-    Their drivers by them trudging;

-    Even nimbler Ants they made submit

-    To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,

-    Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,

-    Against the yoke sore grudging.

-

-      Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,

-    The work lagged nowise; day by day

-    New mansions rose in rich array

-    Beside the paven causey;

-    Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,

-    Some built of brick, and some of stone,

-    And roofed with mica slabs that shone,

-    And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.

-

-    But, fairest amongst all these descried,

-    Stood in the middle edified

-    The Palace where the King should bide,

-    Well worthy a royal master;

-    Of whitest graile its walls, or stained

-    With delicate streaks like marble veined,

-    From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,

-    And pure as alabaster.

-

-      I dare not say how many a line

-    It towered aloft, nor words are mine

-    To tell what fancies Faery-fine

-    Did hall and chamber garnish,

-    All carpeted with hand-spun moss,

-    Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,

-    That flooring made of smoother gloss

-    Than e’er had wax or varnish.

-

-      With couch, and stool, and cushion strown

-    Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;

-    Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,

-    For tiger’s skin and panther’s.

-    Their curtains came from spider-looms,

-    Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;

-    Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,

-    From stamens brushed and anthers.

-

-    A midge-flight from the Palace gate,

-    (Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight

-    A Fane they reared that matched in state

-

-[Illustration:

-

-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]

-

-    Famed Athens or Eleusis;

-    Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,

-    Entablature and pediment;

-    In double row tall columns went

-    Around it, as their use is.

-

-    Each from one slab of rush’s pith

-    Hewn, like majestic monolith,

-    The architrave to prop, therewith

-    The massy roof upholding.

-    Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;

-    No Fay but felt a solemn thrill

-    To pace its cloistered twilight still

-    Mysterious glooms enfolding.

-

-      Then from the brook with trenching spade

-    Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,

-    And hemlock pipes that bitter made

-    The water thro’ them tasted;

-    Hence, some fastidious Fays would go

-    With acorn barrels to and fro,

-    Till this the King forbade, lest so

-    Their labour seem but wasted.

-

-      Herein alone his fortune frowned:

-    That in all Fayland was not found

-    The fire-snake, lured from underground

-    As even-dusk grows dimmer;

-    This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose

-    Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,

-    Chained there all night with knot and noose,

-    To make a goodly glimmer.

-

-[Illustration:

-

-_Copyright by Macmillan & Co. 1894_]

-

-      But who so fain as Oberon,

-    That watched as every morn outshone

-    His peerless city waxing on,

-    While in its growth he gloried?

-    Triumphant joy it gave the King

-    To see each straw-plank scaffolding

-    Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,

-    Wide-windowed, many-storied.

-

-    And ever his stirring Elves amid

-    He walked, and spied on all they did,

-    And toilers praised, and idlers chid,

-    With earnest speech and eager;

-    Till, swift as blades in April-time

-    Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb

-    Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime

-    Keeps but a record meagre.

-

-      And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,

-    Seeing all to such perfection wrought,

-    That Fays might well repose have sought,

-    From toil returned to pleasure.

-    Howbeit, not so their King inclined,

-    For fast as sped the works designed,

-    Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,

-    That wist not bound or measure.

-

-      Oft as from Palace towers he eyed

-    That spacious plain, as oft he sighed

-    To see it planted far and wide

-    With street-rows thick as stubble.

-    Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,

-    Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,

-    That needs must be restored again,

-    Did Elfin labours double.

-

-      Thus, by the malice of the skies,

-    And tasks their King would still devise,

-    The Fays beheld new toils arise

-    To bar their hope of resting;

-    As he who from the strand hath swum,

-    While in his ear the surges hum,

-    Sees evermore to meet him come

-    White flocks of billows cresting.

-

-    Which when at last they clearly knew,

-    Deep discontent upon them grew,

-    Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,

-    Or piled up clay or pebble,

-    Or hoisted load with strain and heft,

-    Or grained a door with fingers deft

-    And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,

-    At heart was half a rebel.

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

-

-

-

-                           II.--THE COUNCIL

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

-

-    So, after setting of a sun,

-    When all their day’s long coil was done,

-    And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun

-    Beneath the moonbeams trembled,

-    Called to a chosen meeting-place,

-    Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,

-    To talk about their evil case

-    The Elfin folk assembled.

-

-      ’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn

-    To see them fagged and labour-worn,

-    Their dainty garments stained and torn,

-    Forms bowed with weary stooping;

-    Most like a bed of windflowers frail,

-    What time a shower of pelting hail

-    Hath smirched with mould the petals pale

-    And left the bruised stalks drooping.

-

-    And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,

-    Now sighing loud, now moaning low,

-

-[Illustration]

-

-    Among the shivering blossoms, so

-    Among the Elves upstarted

-    A wail of voices small and shrill,

-    That swelled and sank commingled, still

-    Lamenting o’er their present ill

-    Or ancient bliss departed.

-

-      First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue

-    Renowned his Faery feres among,

-    Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,

-    Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:

-    “It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),

-    “To bid you ’ware the direful dread,

-    By gathering glooms and shadows spread,

-    Wherewith our days are darkened.

-

-    “But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er

-    The eyes to blind and feet to snare,

-    That else a path would find and fare

-    From forth its grim embrasure,

-    Behoves us seek from whence they flit,

-    These shades that on our lives have lit,

-    For so, perchance, a way we hit,

-    Back to the beamy azure.

-

-      “Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,

-    Here let us pause and ask ourselves

-    Why this one hews, why that one delves,

-    Finch waking, chafer whirring.

-    What graceless freak of spiteful change

-    Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,

-    Who wont down all the dells to range

-    Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?

-

-    “What joy have ye to cleave the clod,

-    Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,

-    Or down the creaking cart-track plod,

-    Or up the ladder dizzy?

-    Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,

-    This piteous plight declares ye must

-    Lament the charge upon you thrust

-    That makes you bondslaves busy.

-

-    “Where now be flown the mirthful hours

-    Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?

-    Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,

-    Gay sports on greensward airy?

-    Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,

-    Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?

-    Have these things now no more delights

-    For heart of woodland Faery?

-

-      “But if one saith: ‘The King commands

-    This irksome service at our hands,

-    And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,

-    Lest traitorous act accuse him’--

-    To such: The ancient laws (I say),

-    Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,

-    Point duly where we must obey,

-    And where, unblamed, refuse him.

-

-    “Since for this cause we crowned his head:

-    That long as Elfin sports be sped,

-    He still should rule the maze we tread,

-    When every Faery traces

-    On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;

-    Even as the planet lamps that swing

-    In shimmering cirques around _their_ King,

-    Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.

-

-    “Hence, if for us he prove indeed

-    No sun-bright orb our step to lead,

-    But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,

-    That traveller’s foot betrayeth,

-    Shall we our lightsome paths forsake

-    Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,

-    Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,

-    Lured as his false gleam playeth?

-

-    “Yea, of the King I ask: To thee

-    Were given for lieges Faeries free,

-    Or creeping things whose toil we see

-    By niggard Nature spurred on?

-    They twist the thread, they store the grain,

-    And thus, at least, their portion gain;

-    Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain

-    That win nor gift nor guerdon.

-

-      “Yet, furthermore, and haply first

-    In import grave: some spell accurst,

-    Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst

-    Thus in our King sets burning;

-    For I long since have deemed to mark

-    Flash from his eye a fitful spark,

-    Enkindled by those sorceries dark

-    That steal the wits’ discerning.

-

-    “How else should he, who erst had known

-    Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,

-    His dwelling choose of stock and stone,

-    Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?

-    Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought

-    Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught

-    Save folly planned by one distraught

-    With some fantastic whimsy?

-

-      “Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth

-    Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,

-    Or hear it said that I for sloth

-    Mine owed allegiance scanted;

-    But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,

-    I less could brook the Fay-folk still

-    Enslaved to work the warlock’s will

-    Who hath our King enchanted.”

-

-    Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went

-    Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent

-    To words that voice their discontent,

-    Long felt but lowly muttered.

-    And Elfdore from among them next

-    Arose, his gentle spirit vext,

-    And much with jarring griefs perplext,

-    As mournful speech he uttered:

-

-    “Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke

-    Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,

-    And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,

-    And sorer ills that threat them;

-    And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind

-    Those days ere yet our bliss declined--

-    Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,

-    What Elf can once forget them?

-

-    “Your heaviest task to plot some prank,

-    Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;

-    With sun that rose, and sun that sank,

-    No Faery’s gladness vanished.

-    But very vainly lend I speech

-    To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,

-    In few, what dismal tracts we reach,

-    From former weal far-banished:

-

-    “That, when our green-ywimpled wood,

-    Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,

-    Lets vermeil dawn a path make good

-    Where many a dim shade drowseth,

-    No more, as once, its burgeoning light

-    Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,

-    But signal-fire that weary wight

-    To loathëd labour rouseth.

-

-    “And when the West’s curved crystalline

-    Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,

-    Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine

-    The rubied rim was crowning,

-    Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,

-    We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,

-    And leave our cares a little space

-    In dreamless slumber drowning.’

-

-      “Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,

-    In slavish bonds our days are clipped,

-    Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,

-    Blank silence, whither fleeing

-    From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth

-    We respite seek--holds life its worth?

-    What joy were minished on the earth

-    If Faeries ceased from being?

-

-[Illustration:

-

-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]

-

-      “And not on you alone this yoke

-    Of bondage falls; an humbler folk

-    May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke

-    First tinkled clinking yonder;

-    Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,

-    Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,

-    To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint

-    I oft remorseful ponder.

-

-    “My heart grows hot when yearnings vain

-    Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,

-    For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,

-    Amid their garnered treasure.

-    And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb

-    To hear the unsightly Spider sob,

-    When from her loom the weft we rob,

-    Wove with such pride and pleasure.

-

-    “And still when harnessed Snail or Slug

-    I watch the hated wain-load tug,

-    Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug

-    Hath past me, panting, lumbered,

-    Reproachful twinges wring my mind,

-    For so we twofold burdens bind

-    On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,

-    Unwieldy frames have cumbered.

-

-      “Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,

-    To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,

-    I fare as foot that nettle flees,

-    But which barbed thistle lameth;

-    So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast

-    What time I heard an Elf suggest

-    That Fays should scorn their King’s behest

-    Since overmuch he claimeth.

-

-    “For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,

-    Let Oberon but anon draw nigh

-    With joyful mien and sparkling eye,

-    Our bootless tasks admiring,

-    And, doubting naught of hearers glad,

-    Begin to tell new projects mad--

-    Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,

-    All Elfland’s strength requiring,

-

-    “Then, wistful, pause my face to scan

-    And read approval of his plan

-    Trow, if for very ruth I can

-    There brook him vainly seek it.

-    Nay, if I knew one word whose might

-    Could all his hopes forbid and blight,

-    Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,

-    In truth ’twere hard to speak it.

-

-    “But for the cause that Elfrain deems

-    Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,

-    A Wizard, who our ruin schemes

-    With arts beyond our foiling;

-    So fell a thought I dare not think

-    That leadeth to a misery’s brink,

-    Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink

-    In anguish back recoiling.

-

-      “Our case my counsel mocks. I rede

-    We Elfmel call, and straitly heed

-    The word he speaks; for if, indeed,

-    Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,

-    His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”

-    Then all around rang eager cries:

-    “Let Elfmel speak--let him advise”--

-    And he, at clamour’s loudest,

-    Stood forth upon the beechen stage;

-    Not old, for Faeries know not age,

-    But past his peers reputed sage,

-    Such fame his wit achieveth;

-    True to the mark his winged words went,

-    Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,

-    Yet clear to show their thought’s intent

-    As air that arrow cleaveth:

-

-    “Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,

-    I long have known for truth” (he said);

-    “No mortal guile the snare hath spread

-    Where Oberon lies entangled;

-    Nor lives who thus awry could twitch

-    His sense, or fool to such a pitch,

-    Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.

-    Aye plotting ills new-fangled.

-

-    “And, wot ye well, if aught avail

-    To countercharm her magic’s bale,

-    Whose mischief sore we so bewail,

-    Plunged in this dire quandáry,

-    ’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;

-    One only may her marring mend--

-    The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend

-    Oft proved to folk of Faery.

-

-    “Yet, he who would her pity awake,

-    A perilous path must undertake,

-    For far beside her Lonesome Lake

-    A slumbrous trance hath bound her,

-    Where evermore a silence deep,

-    Like trusty sentinel, must keep

-    Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep

-    That laps its dreams around her.

-

-    “The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;

-    Beyond the next each sound fails lost;

-    The third fends off both fire and frost,

-    How fierce so e’er their noyance;

-    The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;

-    The fifth bars memory and regret;

-    Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,

-    The seventh all hope and joyance.

-

-    “Still may her helpful might be sought,

-    Still may her ruthful heart be raught,

-    Albeit by steps with peril fraught,

-    Down dim paths danger-ridden;

-    Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms

-    Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,

-    That, save for cure of grievous harms,

-    To utter I am forbidden.

-

-    “And erst deemed I that haply soon,

-    As film-flakes floating by the moon

-    Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,

-    And one brief moment dim it,

-    Even so from us our cares might drift

-    Fleeting and fading soft and swift;

-    But nay; their pall shows never a rift,

-    Their shade-sweep never a limit.

-

-    “And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel

-    ’Tis time to her we make appeal

-    For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,

-    And lure him from his madness;

-    And list ye on this mission trust

-    My zeal and truth, her power august

-    Will I beseech, till yield it must

-    A boon to work us gladness.”

-

-      Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops

-    To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,

-    The voice of clustering Elfin groups

-    Rose up, his speech approving;

-    And cried that in such embassage

-    No worthier Elf could e’er engage;

-    And bade him speed the task whose wage

-    Should be their woe’s removing.

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

-

-

-

-                          III.--THE FLITTING

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

-

-    Hence, when the dawn looked dewiest,

-    Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,

-    Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,

-    While still the King lay dreaming;

-    But--since his se’ennight’s peril dared

-    Were long to tell--he home repaired

-    When Elfintown at sunset flared,

-    With roofs and windows gleaming.

-

-    He came, in sooth, at time of need,

-    Because the King had just decreed

-    A task that should all tasks exceed

-    Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:

-    A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,

-    Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,

-    And even the loftiest plantain-spike

-    Peer in prodigious pride o’er.

-

-    Not empty-handed Elfmel came:

-    A mirror wan in dark-wove frame

-    The Witch had sent, and o’er the same

-    Breathed many a murmur mystic;

-    In size it matched the rain-drop pearled

-    At broadest blade-point; round it curled

-    Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled

-    With sentence Kabalistic.

-

-    The which, if hung ere fall of night

-    Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight

-    Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,

-    Would show him such a vision

-    As must his frenzy scare away:

-    “Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”

-    Quoth she; yet more she would not say,

-    But sped the Elf on his mission.

-

-      This Elfmel did anon relate

-    To his comrades, met in grave debate,

-    Who joyed to learn their evil estate

-    Might now eftsoons be mended.

-    And twain in haste by secret stair

-    To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,

-    What time he bode all unaware

-    Of aught his Elves intended.

-

-      Methinks when dimness round them closed,

-    The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,

-    For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed

-    The drift of night’s pale lily;

-    Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze

-    Whereon the fluttering petal flees,

-    Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease

-    To light and linger stilly.

-

-[Illustration]

-

-    Some soft as drowsy finches sung:

-    “Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among

-    To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung

-    Till night star-bright,” they twittered;

-    While others kept a mien more grave,

-    For somewhat still their minds misgave

-    That care so blithe an end should have

-    Which long their lives embittered.

-

-    But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain

-    To see red light the east distain,

-    That Oberon should rouse again

-    From slumbers gramarie-haunted;

-    For then they must behold a sign

-    If verily to that spell benign

-    The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign

-    Had yielded, quelled and daunted.

-

-    And ’mid the mists of morning-tide

-    Thronged to the Palace court they hied;

-    And, lo, the massy door flung wide,

-    And Oberon thro’ it pacing.

-    Sad was his look, as if he grieved

-    Of long-deluding hope bereaved,

-    Or fairest myth, too much believed,

-    Truth-touched with finger effacing.

-

-    Forth paced he to as mute a hush

-    As falls upon the twittering bush

-    Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,

-    Their motley tyrant, coming;

-    For never a Fay durst move, in fear

-    Lest haply so should fail his ear

-    The words he held his breath to hear

-    Above his heart’s thick drumming.

-

-    Nor any sound from earth or sky

-    That silence flawed, save if thereby

-    A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,

-    Stamped foot and tugged at tether;

-    Or shrilled a sharper note than that

-    Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,

-    Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat

-    And twirled lean legs together.

-

-      “Strange tidings unto you I bring,

-    My faithful Fays,” so spake the King

-    “For in this night a wondrous thing

-    Was shown me as I slumbered;

-    A wondrous thing and piteous both,

-    For against itself my heart grows wroth

-    To think how I have abused your troth,

-    And worked you woes unnumbered.

-

-    “Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain

-    No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,

-    To trace these tracks of labour vain,

-    This witless work to gaze on;

-    Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks

-    Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,

-    As if all round on boards and blocks

-    I read my folly’s blazon.

-

-    “Yet bitterer far to feel the while

-    That every huge-erected pile

-    Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile

-    From Elfin race exacted.

-    And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?

-    Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?

-    Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief

-    Of mind with charms distracted.

-

-      “And now the night-sent sign, that snaps

-    This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps

-    Wherein Fate hid our future haps,

-    And me its portent teacheth

-    ’Tis fit that yet one further task

-    I of your tried allegiance ask--

-    I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask

-    That here your aid beseecheth:

-

-    “I charge you that forthright ye haste

-    To lay this cursëd city waste;

-    Let wall be breached, and site erased,

-    Pluck down both roof and rafter;

-    Leave not a stone on stone to stand;

-    Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!

-    Of Faery folk such toils demand

-    In all the ages after.”

-

-      Thereat uprose a jubilant shout

-    From all who hearkened round about,

-    For so they knew beyond a doubt

-    King Oberon’s craze departed.

-    “Swift be the King’s command obeyed,

-    Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,

-    Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,

-    Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”

-

-      But Oberon, still of mien deject,

-    Their strain exultant heard and checked

-    With lifted palm and pale aspect,

-    That motioned silence thro’ them.

-

-[Illustration:

-

-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]

-

-    “Not so,” spake he in accents grave,

-    “No more for us the deep woods wave,

-    Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,

-    Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;

-

-    “Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,

-    Down yon cool shades all care to flee,

-    And very fain would watch your glee

-    Wax as in good days golden--

-    For, lo, the dream, whose power undid

-    That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,

-    Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,

-    So fair a hope withholden.

-

-      “Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,

-    When Earthland first felt Elfin tread--

-    But whence, or how, or why we sped,

-    I wot our wisest knows not--

-    The Fate who did our journeyings guide

-    Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,

-    This ball must aye our dwelling bide,

-    A prison whose doors unclose not.

-

-    “That weird-night’s vision warns me so--

-    Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,

-    Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,

-    Long since to me confiding

-    The word whereby, if need befal,

-    Aërial chariots I may call,

-    Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all

-    Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.

-

-      “Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,

-    So dear our haunts by flood and feld,

-    That evermore I hoped and held

-    Such word need ne’er be spoken,

-    Now from me wrung by darkening doom,

-    As menace-murk of thunder-gloom

-    Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom

-    Ere yet the storm hath broken.

-

-    “No plainer speech my lips dare frame;

-    But, soothly, had ye seen the same,

-    Each idle moment would ye blame

-    That us from flight doth sever,

-    Not loitering o’er what rests to do

-    Ere hence we float up yonder blue,

-    Self-exiled from the paths we knew--

-    For ever and for ever.”

-

-      I trow that every Fay who heard

-    Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,

-    Yet none lamented, none demurred,

-    Or against his will besought him;

-    For in his steadfast-mournful eyne

-    They could some fatal truth divine,

-    Tho’ none might know what boding sign

-    To stern resolve had wrought him.

-

-    And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t

-    What vision from that mirror’s breast

-    Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,

-    So filled with fear and wonder.

-    Some say that unto him were shown

-    Days when round earth, once green and lone,

-    Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,

-    No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;

-    And say he saw or ever he woke

-    High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,

-    Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke

-    Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;

-    World weeded o’er from prime to prime

-    With want, and woe, and care, and crime,

-    Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,

-    That halts such burden under.

-

-      Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd

-    Made haste to raze those mansions proud;

-    Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud

-    To crash of timbers falling,

-    As toppling towers at onslaught rude

-    Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed

-    Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd

-    Slipped homeward, warily crawling.

-

-    Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare

-    Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,

-    He spied no Elfin doings there,

-    And only heard a rustle

-    Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown

-    Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.

-    This was the end of Elfintown,

-    Built with such coil and bustle.

-

-      Then Oberon spake the word of might

-    That set the enchanted cars in sight;

-    But lore I lack to tell aright

-

-[Illustration:

-

-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]

-

-    Where these had waited hidden.

-    Perchance the clear airs round us rolled

-    In secret cells did them enfold,

-    Like evening dew that none behold

-    Till to the sward ’tis slidden.

-

-    And who can say what wizardise

-    Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,

-    And given them power to stoop and rise

-    More high than thought hath travelled?

-    Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,

-    But more of meteor’s luminous mist,

-    All girt with strands of seven-hued twist

-    From rainbow’s verge unravelled.

-

-    ’Tis said, and I believe it well,

-    That whoso mounts their magic sell,

-    Goes, if he list, invisible

-    Beneath the broadest noonlight;

-    That virtue comes of Faery-fern,

-    Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn

-    Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn

-    Flame-fronded in the moonlight;

-

-    For this holds true--too true, alas!--

-    The sky that eve was clear as glass,

-    Yet no man saw the Faeries pass

-    Where azure pathways glisten;

-    And true it is--too true, ay me--

-    That nevermore on lawn or lea

-    Shall mortal man a Faery see,

-    Tho’ long he look and listen.

-

-    Only the twilit woods among

-    A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung

-    Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung

-    Beyond sky-reaches hollow;

-    Still further, fainter up the height,

-    Receding past the deep-zoned night--

-    Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,

-    Faint call of Fays who follow:

-

-    (_Fays following._)   Red-rose mists o’erdrift

-                        Moth-moon’s glimmering white,

-                        Lit by sheen-silled west

-                        Barred with fiery bar;

-                        Fleeting, following swift,

-                        Whither across the night

-                        Seek we bourne of rest?

-    (_Fays leading._)    Afar.

-

-    (_Fays following._) Vailing crest on crest

-                        Down the shadowy height,

-                        Earth with shores and seas

-                        Dropt, a dwindling gleam.

-                        Dusk, and bowery nest,

-                        Dawn, and dells dew-bright,

-                        What shall bide of these?

-    (_Fays leading._)    A dream.

-

-    (_Fays following._)  Fled, ah fled, our sight.

-                        Yea, but thrills of fire

-                        Throbbed adown yon deep,

-                        Faint and very far

-                        Who shall rede aright?

-                        Say, what wafts us nigher,

-                        Beckoning up the steep?

-    (_Fays leading._)    A star.

-

-    (_Fays following._)  List, a star! a star!

-                        Oh, our goal of light!

-                        Yet the winged shades sweep,

-                        Yet the void looms vast.

-                        Weary our wild dreams are:

-                        When shall cease our flight

-                        Soft on shores of sleep?

-    (_Fays leading._)     At last.

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

-                            [Illustration]

-

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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67883 ***
+
+                            [Illustration:
+
+                              THE END OF
+                               ELFINTOWN
+
+                                  BY
+                              JANE BARLOW
+                            ILLUSTRATED BY
+                           LAURENCE HOUSMAN
+
+                                LONDON
+                            MACMILLAN & CO.
+                                 1894]
+
+
+
+
+                           I.--THE BUILDING
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+    Now would that he who knew so well
+    Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,
+    And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,
+    And how their feud was ended,
+    Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,
+    Had writ in gold, as I in lead,
+    For men to learn why Fays be fled,
+    And whitherward they wended.
+
+      It hapt in ages far agone
+    A harmful spell was cast upon
+    That Elfin King, great Oberon,
+    And teen and trouble brought him;
+    And albeit none can track the skill
+    That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,
+    We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will
+    Such perilous mischief wrought him.
+
+    For she by magic showed him clear,
+    In mirroring crystal of her mere,
+    A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year
+    Ere yet its like were builded;
+    But thro’ her might of gramarie
+    She made the Elfin Prince to see
+    The grandest that on earth should be,
+    And most by wealth-wand gilded.
+
+    ’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size
+    For straiter range of Elfin eyes,
+    But else it had its mortal guise,
+    No sight, no stir omitted,
+    With tower and temple, and mart and street,
+    And prison and palace, all complete,
+    And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet
+    That hither thither flitted.
+
+      Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,
+    Admiring more, and more amazed,
+    Till, when the Witch its image razed,
+    Still in his heart it tarried,
+    (A secret that he might not tell),
+    And home unto his woodland dell
+    That city’s vision, like a spell,
+    O’er all his thoughts he carried.
+
+    And since that day he dwelled no more
+    In joyance blithe as theretofore,
+    But sadly aye himself he bore
+    Amid the sunniest shining;
+    Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,
+    Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;
+    He dreamed of rarer things than these,
+    And for their lack was pining.
+
+    From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,
+    From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,
+    He shifted oft his couch withal,
+    Yet still would chide his chamber,
+    And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,
+    And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;
+    The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,
+    And cowslip’s gawds of amber.
+
+      Hence, on his discontents to brood,
+    He sat one eve in sorry mood,
+    While whispering Elves around him stood,
+    And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;
+    When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,
+    He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,
+    Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay
+    Shall build as fair a city.”
+
+    And eagerly at morrow’s light
+    He hasted forth to choose a site,
+    Whereon should now be reared aright
+    Strong walls and storeys stately.
+    He found it soon: an earth-plot bare
+    Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;
+    No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,
+    Which pleased King Oberon greatly.
+
+      “For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen
+    No blade of grass, or glint of green,
+    But pavements ferly smooth and clean;
+    Small fear of footsteps tripping.”
+    Not far away a brook bobbed by:
+    “From thence,” he said, “we may supply
+    Our waterworks; and soothly I
+    Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”
+
+    Then hied him home amain, and shook
+    His drowsy Fays from every nook,
+    And bade them follow with him, and look
+    Where splendour should be springing;
+    And ere the earliest star blinked down
+    Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,
+    The first white pebble of Elfintown
+    He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.
+
+      And now, indeed, industrious days
+    Be risen upon the land of Fays,
+    Where every liege his Lord obeys,
+    And toils beside his neighbour.
+    They plied them late, they plied them soon,
+    In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,
+    Nay, oft the wan light of a moon
+    Swam in to lamp their labour.
+
+    No more round Faery-ring they swept
+    In mazy measures ere they slept;
+    But, silent, to his lair each crept,
+    Limb wearied, sinews aching.
+    No more they couched in campion’s cell,
+    Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;
+    Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,
+    Brief rest from task-work taking.
+
+      Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,
+    Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks
+    To helves of flax-haulm fitted;
+    On business more than one can name
+    From dawn to dusk they went and came;
+    None durst his share refuse for shame,
+    Nor would with sloth be twitted.
+
+    And brutish things, that creep and crawl
+    Stingless and strong, they did enthrall
+    To burdens bear, and pull and haul,
+    Along the highways goaded;
+    There might ye see the Beetle black
+    Come lumbering down the dusty track,
+    With pebble-blocks piled on his back,
+    Or mossy twig-beams loaded.
+
+    And oft they ponderous weights would heap
+    On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,
+    For many a tedious yard must creep,
+    Their drivers by them trudging;
+    Even nimbler Ants they made submit
+    To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,
+    Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,
+    Against the yoke sore grudging.
+
+      Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,
+    The work lagged nowise; day by day
+    New mansions rose in rich array
+    Beside the paven causey;
+    Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,
+    Some built of brick, and some of stone,
+    And roofed with mica slabs that shone,
+    And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.
+
+    But, fairest amongst all these descried,
+    Stood in the middle edified
+    The Palace where the King should bide,
+    Well worthy a royal master;
+    Of whitest graile its walls, or stained
+    With delicate streaks like marble veined,
+    From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,
+    And pure as alabaster.
+
+      I dare not say how many a line
+    It towered aloft, nor words are mine
+    To tell what fancies Faery-fine
+    Did hall and chamber garnish,
+    All carpeted with hand-spun moss,
+    Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,
+    That flooring made of smoother gloss
+    Than e’er had wax or varnish.
+
+      With couch, and stool, and cushion strown
+    Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;
+    Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,
+    For tiger’s skin and panther’s.
+    Their curtains came from spider-looms,
+    Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;
+    Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,
+    From stamens brushed and anthers.
+
+    A midge-flight from the Palace gate,
+    (Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight
+    A Fane they reared that matched in state
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    Famed Athens or Eleusis;
+    Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,
+    Entablature and pediment;
+    In double row tall columns went
+    Around it, as their use is.
+
+    Each from one slab of rush’s pith
+    Hewn, like majestic monolith,
+    The architrave to prop, therewith
+    The massy roof upholding.
+    Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;
+    No Fay but felt a solemn thrill
+    To pace its cloistered twilight still
+    Mysterious glooms enfolding.
+
+      Then from the brook with trenching spade
+    Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,
+    And hemlock pipes that bitter made
+    The water thro’ them tasted;
+    Hence, some fastidious Fays would go
+    With acorn barrels to and fro,
+    Till this the King forbade, lest so
+    Their labour seem but wasted.
+
+      Herein alone his fortune frowned:
+    That in all Fayland was not found
+    The fire-snake, lured from underground
+    As even-dusk grows dimmer;
+    This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose
+    Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,
+    Chained there all night with knot and noose,
+    To make a goodly glimmer.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright by Macmillan & Co. 1894_]
+
+      But who so fain as Oberon,
+    That watched as every morn outshone
+    His peerless city waxing on,
+    While in its growth he gloried?
+    Triumphant joy it gave the King
+    To see each straw-plank scaffolding
+    Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,
+    Wide-windowed, many-storied.
+
+    And ever his stirring Elves amid
+    He walked, and spied on all they did,
+    And toilers praised, and idlers chid,
+    With earnest speech and eager;
+    Till, swift as blades in April-time
+    Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb
+    Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime
+    Keeps but a record meagre.
+
+      And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,
+    Seeing all to such perfection wrought,
+    That Fays might well repose have sought,
+    From toil returned to pleasure.
+    Howbeit, not so their King inclined,
+    For fast as sped the works designed,
+    Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,
+    That wist not bound or measure.
+
+      Oft as from Palace towers he eyed
+    That spacious plain, as oft he sighed
+    To see it planted far and wide
+    With street-rows thick as stubble.
+    Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,
+    Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,
+    That needs must be restored again,
+    Did Elfin labours double.
+
+      Thus, by the malice of the skies,
+    And tasks their King would still devise,
+    The Fays beheld new toils arise
+    To bar their hope of resting;
+    As he who from the strand hath swum,
+    While in his ear the surges hum,
+    Sees evermore to meet him come
+    White flocks of billows cresting.
+
+    Which when at last they clearly knew,
+    Deep discontent upon them grew,
+    Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,
+    Or piled up clay or pebble,
+    Or hoisted load with strain and heft,
+    Or grained a door with fingers deft
+    And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,
+    At heart was half a rebel.
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                           II.--THE COUNCIL
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+    So, after setting of a sun,
+    When all their day’s long coil was done,
+    And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun
+    Beneath the moonbeams trembled,
+    Called to a chosen meeting-place,
+    Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,
+    To talk about their evil case
+    The Elfin folk assembled.
+
+      ’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn
+    To see them fagged and labour-worn,
+    Their dainty garments stained and torn,
+    Forms bowed with weary stooping;
+    Most like a bed of windflowers frail,
+    What time a shower of pelting hail
+    Hath smirched with mould the petals pale
+    And left the bruised stalks drooping.
+
+    And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,
+    Now sighing loud, now moaning low,
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    Among the shivering blossoms, so
+    Among the Elves upstarted
+    A wail of voices small and shrill,
+    That swelled and sank commingled, still
+    Lamenting o’er their present ill
+    Or ancient bliss departed.
+
+      First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue
+    Renowned his Faery feres among,
+    Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,
+    Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:
+    “It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),
+    “To bid you ’ware the direful dread,
+    By gathering glooms and shadows spread,
+    Wherewith our days are darkened.
+
+    “But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er
+    The eyes to blind and feet to snare,
+    That else a path would find and fare
+    From forth its grim embrasure,
+    Behoves us seek from whence they flit,
+    These shades that on our lives have lit,
+    For so, perchance, a way we hit,
+    Back to the beamy azure.
+
+      “Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,
+    Here let us pause and ask ourselves
+    Why this one hews, why that one delves,
+    Finch waking, chafer whirring.
+    What graceless freak of spiteful change
+    Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,
+    Who wont down all the dells to range
+    Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?
+
+    “What joy have ye to cleave the clod,
+    Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,
+    Or down the creaking cart-track plod,
+    Or up the ladder dizzy?
+    Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,
+    This piteous plight declares ye must
+    Lament the charge upon you thrust
+    That makes you bondslaves busy.
+
+    “Where now be flown the mirthful hours
+    Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?
+    Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,
+    Gay sports on greensward airy?
+    Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,
+    Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?
+    Have these things now no more delights
+    For heart of woodland Faery?
+
+      “But if one saith: ‘The King commands
+    This irksome service at our hands,
+    And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,
+    Lest traitorous act accuse him’--
+    To such: The ancient laws (I say),
+    Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,
+    Point duly where we must obey,
+    And where, unblamed, refuse him.
+
+    “Since for this cause we crowned his head:
+    That long as Elfin sports be sped,
+    He still should rule the maze we tread,
+    When every Faery traces
+    On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;
+    Even as the planet lamps that swing
+    In shimmering cirques around _their_ King,
+    Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.
+
+    “Hence, if for us he prove indeed
+    No sun-bright orb our step to lead,
+    But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,
+    That traveller’s foot betrayeth,
+    Shall we our lightsome paths forsake
+    Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,
+    Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,
+    Lured as his false gleam playeth?
+
+    “Yea, of the King I ask: To thee
+    Were given for lieges Faeries free,
+    Or creeping things whose toil we see
+    By niggard Nature spurred on?
+    They twist the thread, they store the grain,
+    And thus, at least, their portion gain;
+    Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain
+    That win nor gift nor guerdon.
+
+      “Yet, furthermore, and haply first
+    In import grave: some spell accurst,
+    Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst
+    Thus in our King sets burning;
+    For I long since have deemed to mark
+    Flash from his eye a fitful spark,
+    Enkindled by those sorceries dark
+    That steal the wits’ discerning.
+
+    “How else should he, who erst had known
+    Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,
+    His dwelling choose of stock and stone,
+    Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?
+    Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought
+    Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught
+    Save folly planned by one distraught
+    With some fantastic whimsy?
+
+      “Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth
+    Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,
+    Or hear it said that I for sloth
+    Mine owed allegiance scanted;
+    But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,
+    I less could brook the Fay-folk still
+    Enslaved to work the warlock’s will
+    Who hath our King enchanted.”
+
+    Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went
+    Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent
+    To words that voice their discontent,
+    Long felt but lowly muttered.
+    And Elfdore from among them next
+    Arose, his gentle spirit vext,
+    And much with jarring griefs perplext,
+    As mournful speech he uttered:
+
+    “Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke
+    Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,
+    And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,
+    And sorer ills that threat them;
+    And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind
+    Those days ere yet our bliss declined--
+    Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,
+    What Elf can once forget them?
+
+    “Your heaviest task to plot some prank,
+    Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;
+    With sun that rose, and sun that sank,
+    No Faery’s gladness vanished.
+    But very vainly lend I speech
+    To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,
+    In few, what dismal tracts we reach,
+    From former weal far-banished:
+
+    “That, when our green-ywimpled wood,
+    Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,
+    Lets vermeil dawn a path make good
+    Where many a dim shade drowseth,
+    No more, as once, its burgeoning light
+    Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,
+    But signal-fire that weary wight
+    To loathëd labour rouseth.
+
+    “And when the West’s curved crystalline
+    Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,
+    Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine
+    The rubied rim was crowning,
+    Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,
+    We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,
+    And leave our cares a little space
+    In dreamless slumber drowning.’
+
+      “Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,
+    In slavish bonds our days are clipped,
+    Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,
+    Blank silence, whither fleeing
+    From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth
+    We respite seek--holds life its worth?
+    What joy were minished on the earth
+    If Faeries ceased from being?
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+      “And not on you alone this yoke
+    Of bondage falls; an humbler folk
+    May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke
+    First tinkled clinking yonder;
+    Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,
+    Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,
+    To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint
+    I oft remorseful ponder.
+
+    “My heart grows hot when yearnings vain
+    Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,
+    For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,
+    Amid their garnered treasure.
+    And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb
+    To hear the unsightly Spider sob,
+    When from her loom the weft we rob,
+    Wove with such pride and pleasure.
+
+    “And still when harnessed Snail or Slug
+    I watch the hated wain-load tug,
+    Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug
+    Hath past me, panting, lumbered,
+    Reproachful twinges wring my mind,
+    For so we twofold burdens bind
+    On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,
+    Unwieldy frames have cumbered.
+
+      “Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,
+    To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,
+    I fare as foot that nettle flees,
+    But which barbed thistle lameth;
+    So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast
+    What time I heard an Elf suggest
+    That Fays should scorn their King’s behest
+    Since overmuch he claimeth.
+
+    “For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,
+    Let Oberon but anon draw nigh
+    With joyful mien and sparkling eye,
+    Our bootless tasks admiring,
+    And, doubting naught of hearers glad,
+    Begin to tell new projects mad--
+    Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,
+    All Elfland’s strength requiring,
+
+    “Then, wistful, pause my face to scan
+    And read approval of his plan
+    Trow, if for very ruth I can
+    There brook him vainly seek it.
+    Nay, if I knew one word whose might
+    Could all his hopes forbid and blight,
+    Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,
+    In truth ’twere hard to speak it.
+
+    “But for the cause that Elfrain deems
+    Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,
+    A Wizard, who our ruin schemes
+    With arts beyond our foiling;
+    So fell a thought I dare not think
+    That leadeth to a misery’s brink,
+    Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink
+    In anguish back recoiling.
+
+      “Our case my counsel mocks. I rede
+    We Elfmel call, and straitly heed
+    The word he speaks; for if, indeed,
+    Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,
+    His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”
+    Then all around rang eager cries:
+    “Let Elfmel speak--let him advise”--
+    And he, at clamour’s loudest,
+    Stood forth upon the beechen stage;
+    Not old, for Faeries know not age,
+    But past his peers reputed sage,
+    Such fame his wit achieveth;
+    True to the mark his winged words went,
+    Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,
+    Yet clear to show their thought’s intent
+    As air that arrow cleaveth:
+
+    “Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,
+    I long have known for truth” (he said);
+    “No mortal guile the snare hath spread
+    Where Oberon lies entangled;
+    Nor lives who thus awry could twitch
+    His sense, or fool to such a pitch,
+    Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.
+    Aye plotting ills new-fangled.
+
+    “And, wot ye well, if aught avail
+    To countercharm her magic’s bale,
+    Whose mischief sore we so bewail,
+    Plunged in this dire quandáry,
+    ’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;
+    One only may her marring mend--
+    The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend
+    Oft proved to folk of Faery.
+
+    “Yet, he who would her pity awake,
+    A perilous path must undertake,
+    For far beside her Lonesome Lake
+    A slumbrous trance hath bound her,
+    Where evermore a silence deep,
+    Like trusty sentinel, must keep
+    Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep
+    That laps its dreams around her.
+
+    “The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;
+    Beyond the next each sound fails lost;
+    The third fends off both fire and frost,
+    How fierce so e’er their noyance;
+    The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;
+    The fifth bars memory and regret;
+    Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,
+    The seventh all hope and joyance.
+
+    “Still may her helpful might be sought,
+    Still may her ruthful heart be raught,
+    Albeit by steps with peril fraught,
+    Down dim paths danger-ridden;
+    Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms
+    Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,
+    That, save for cure of grievous harms,
+    To utter I am forbidden.
+
+    “And erst deemed I that haply soon,
+    As film-flakes floating by the moon
+    Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,
+    And one brief moment dim it,
+    Even so from us our cares might drift
+    Fleeting and fading soft and swift;
+    But nay; their pall shows never a rift,
+    Their shade-sweep never a limit.
+
+    “And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel
+    ’Tis time to her we make appeal
+    For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,
+    And lure him from his madness;
+    And list ye on this mission trust
+    My zeal and truth, her power august
+    Will I beseech, till yield it must
+    A boon to work us gladness.”
+
+      Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops
+    To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,
+    The voice of clustering Elfin groups
+    Rose up, his speech approving;
+    And cried that in such embassage
+    No worthier Elf could e’er engage;
+    And bade him speed the task whose wage
+    Should be their woe’s removing.
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                          III.--THE FLITTING
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+    Hence, when the dawn looked dewiest,
+    Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,
+    Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,
+    While still the King lay dreaming;
+    But--since his se’ennight’s peril dared
+    Were long to tell--he home repaired
+    When Elfintown at sunset flared,
+    With roofs and windows gleaming.
+
+    He came, in sooth, at time of need,
+    Because the King had just decreed
+    A task that should all tasks exceed
+    Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:
+    A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,
+    Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,
+    And even the loftiest plantain-spike
+    Peer in prodigious pride o’er.
+
+    Not empty-handed Elfmel came:
+    A mirror wan in dark-wove frame
+    The Witch had sent, and o’er the same
+    Breathed many a murmur mystic;
+    In size it matched the rain-drop pearled
+    At broadest blade-point; round it curled
+    Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled
+    With sentence Kabalistic.
+
+    The which, if hung ere fall of night
+    Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight
+    Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,
+    Would show him such a vision
+    As must his frenzy scare away:
+    “Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”
+    Quoth she; yet more she would not say,
+    But sped the Elf on his mission.
+
+      This Elfmel did anon relate
+    To his comrades, met in grave debate,
+    Who joyed to learn their evil estate
+    Might now eftsoons be mended.
+    And twain in haste by secret stair
+    To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,
+    What time he bode all unaware
+    Of aught his Elves intended.
+
+      Methinks when dimness round them closed,
+    The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,
+    For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed
+    The drift of night’s pale lily;
+    Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze
+    Whereon the fluttering petal flees,
+    Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease
+    To light and linger stilly.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    Some soft as drowsy finches sung:
+    “Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among
+    To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung
+    Till night star-bright,” they twittered;
+    While others kept a mien more grave,
+    For somewhat still their minds misgave
+    That care so blithe an end should have
+    Which long their lives embittered.
+
+    But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain
+    To see red light the east distain,
+    That Oberon should rouse again
+    From slumbers gramarie-haunted;
+    For then they must behold a sign
+    If verily to that spell benign
+    The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign
+    Had yielded, quelled and daunted.
+
+    And ’mid the mists of morning-tide
+    Thronged to the Palace court they hied;
+    And, lo, the massy door flung wide,
+    And Oberon thro’ it pacing.
+    Sad was his look, as if he grieved
+    Of long-deluding hope bereaved,
+    Or fairest myth, too much believed,
+    Truth-touched with finger effacing.
+
+    Forth paced he to as mute a hush
+    As falls upon the twittering bush
+    Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,
+    Their motley tyrant, coming;
+    For never a Fay durst move, in fear
+    Lest haply so should fail his ear
+    The words he held his breath to hear
+    Above his heart’s thick drumming.
+
+    Nor any sound from earth or sky
+    That silence flawed, save if thereby
+    A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,
+    Stamped foot and tugged at tether;
+    Or shrilled a sharper note than that
+    Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,
+    Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat
+    And twirled lean legs together.
+
+      “Strange tidings unto you I bring,
+    My faithful Fays,” so spake the King
+    “For in this night a wondrous thing
+    Was shown me as I slumbered;
+    A wondrous thing and piteous both,
+    For against itself my heart grows wroth
+    To think how I have abused your troth,
+    And worked you woes unnumbered.
+
+    “Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain
+    No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,
+    To trace these tracks of labour vain,
+    This witless work to gaze on;
+    Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks
+    Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,
+    As if all round on boards and blocks
+    I read my folly’s blazon.
+
+    “Yet bitterer far to feel the while
+    That every huge-erected pile
+    Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile
+    From Elfin race exacted.
+    And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?
+    Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?
+    Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief
+    Of mind with charms distracted.
+
+      “And now the night-sent sign, that snaps
+    This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps
+    Wherein Fate hid our future haps,
+    And me its portent teacheth
+    ’Tis fit that yet one further task
+    I of your tried allegiance ask--
+    I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask
+    That here your aid beseecheth:
+
+    “I charge you that forthright ye haste
+    To lay this cursëd city waste;
+    Let wall be breached, and site erased,
+    Pluck down both roof and rafter;
+    Leave not a stone on stone to stand;
+    Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!
+    Of Faery folk such toils demand
+    In all the ages after.”
+
+      Thereat uprose a jubilant shout
+    From all who hearkened round about,
+    For so they knew beyond a doubt
+    King Oberon’s craze departed.
+    “Swift be the King’s command obeyed,
+    Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,
+    Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,
+    Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”
+
+      But Oberon, still of mien deject,
+    Their strain exultant heard and checked
+    With lifted palm and pale aspect,
+    That motioned silence thro’ them.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    “Not so,” spake he in accents grave,
+    “No more for us the deep woods wave,
+    Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,
+    Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;
+
+    “Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,
+    Down yon cool shades all care to flee,
+    And very fain would watch your glee
+    Wax as in good days golden--
+    For, lo, the dream, whose power undid
+    That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,
+    Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,
+    So fair a hope withholden.
+
+      “Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,
+    When Earthland first felt Elfin tread--
+    But whence, or how, or why we sped,
+    I wot our wisest knows not--
+    The Fate who did our journeyings guide
+    Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,
+    This ball must aye our dwelling bide,
+    A prison whose doors unclose not.
+
+    “That weird-night’s vision warns me so--
+    Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,
+    Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,
+    Long since to me confiding
+    The word whereby, if need befal,
+    Aërial chariots I may call,
+    Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all
+    Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.
+
+      “Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,
+    So dear our haunts by flood and feld,
+    That evermore I hoped and held
+    Such word need ne’er be spoken,
+    Now from me wrung by darkening doom,
+    As menace-murk of thunder-gloom
+    Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom
+    Ere yet the storm hath broken.
+
+    “No plainer speech my lips dare frame;
+    But, soothly, had ye seen the same,
+    Each idle moment would ye blame
+    That us from flight doth sever,
+    Not loitering o’er what rests to do
+    Ere hence we float up yonder blue,
+    Self-exiled from the paths we knew--
+    For ever and for ever.”
+
+      I trow that every Fay who heard
+    Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,
+    Yet none lamented, none demurred,
+    Or against his will besought him;
+    For in his steadfast-mournful eyne
+    They could some fatal truth divine,
+    Tho’ none might know what boding sign
+    To stern resolve had wrought him.
+
+    And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t
+    What vision from that mirror’s breast
+    Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,
+    So filled with fear and wonder.
+    Some say that unto him were shown
+    Days when round earth, once green and lone,
+    Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,
+    No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;
+    And say he saw or ever he woke
+    High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,
+    Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke
+    Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;
+    World weeded o’er from prime to prime
+    With want, and woe, and care, and crime,
+    Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,
+    That halts such burden under.
+
+      Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd
+    Made haste to raze those mansions proud;
+    Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud
+    To crash of timbers falling,
+    As toppling towers at onslaught rude
+    Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed
+    Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd
+    Slipped homeward, warily crawling.
+
+    Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare
+    Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,
+    He spied no Elfin doings there,
+    And only heard a rustle
+    Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown
+    Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.
+    This was the end of Elfintown,
+    Built with such coil and bustle.
+
+      Then Oberon spake the word of might
+    That set the enchanted cars in sight;
+    But lore I lack to tell aright
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    Where these had waited hidden.
+    Perchance the clear airs round us rolled
+    In secret cells did them enfold,
+    Like evening dew that none behold
+    Till to the sward ’tis slidden.
+
+    And who can say what wizardise
+    Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,
+    And given them power to stoop and rise
+    More high than thought hath travelled?
+    Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,
+    But more of meteor’s luminous mist,
+    All girt with strands of seven-hued twist
+    From rainbow’s verge unravelled.
+
+    ’Tis said, and I believe it well,
+    That whoso mounts their magic sell,
+    Goes, if he list, invisible
+    Beneath the broadest noonlight;
+    That virtue comes of Faery-fern,
+    Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn
+    Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn
+    Flame-fronded in the moonlight;
+
+    For this holds true--too true, alas!--
+    The sky that eve was clear as glass,
+    Yet no man saw the Faeries pass
+    Where azure pathways glisten;
+    And true it is--too true, ay me--
+    That nevermore on lawn or lea
+    Shall mortal man a Faery see,
+    Tho’ long he look and listen.
+
+    Only the twilit woods among
+    A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung
+    Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung
+    Beyond sky-reaches hollow;
+    Still further, fainter up the height,
+    Receding past the deep-zoned night--
+    Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,
+    Faint call of Fays who follow:
+
+    (_Fays following._)   Red-rose mists o’erdrift
+                        Moth-moon’s glimmering white,
+                        Lit by sheen-silled west
+                        Barred with fiery bar;
+                        Fleeting, following swift,
+                        Whither across the night
+                        Seek we bourne of rest?
+    (_Fays leading._)    Afar.
+
+    (_Fays following._) Vailing crest on crest
+                        Down the shadowy height,
+                        Earth with shores and seas
+                        Dropt, a dwindling gleam.
+                        Dusk, and bowery nest,
+                        Dawn, and dells dew-bright,
+                        What shall bide of these?
+    (_Fays leading._)    A dream.
+
+    (_Fays following._)  Fled, ah fled, our sight.
+                        Yea, but thrills of fire
+                        Throbbed adown yon deep,
+                        Faint and very far
+                        Who shall rede aright?
+                        Say, what wafts us nigher,
+                        Beckoning up the steep?
+    (_Fays leading._)    A star.
+
+    (_Fays following._)  List, a star! a star!
+                        Oh, our goal of light!
+                        Yet the winged shades sweep,
+                        Yet the void looms vast.
+                        Weary our wild dreams are:
+                        When shall cease our flight
+                        Soft on shores of sleep?
+    (_Fays leading._)     At last.
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67883 ***
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow</p>

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-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The End of Elfintown</p>

-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Jane Barlow</p>

-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Laurence Housman</p>

-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 20, 2022 [eBook #67883]</p>

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-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***</div>

-<hr class="full" />

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<a href="images/cover.jpg">

-<img src="images/cover.jpg" height="500" alt="[The

-image of the book's cover is unavailable.]" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<table cellpadding="0">

-<tr><td class="c" colspan="3"><b>CONTENTS</b></td></tr>

-<tr><td class="r"><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">I.</a></td><td><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">&mdash;THE BUILDING</a></td></tr>

-<tr><td class="r"><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">II.</a></td><td><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">&mdash;THE COUNCIL</a></td></tr>

-<tr><td class="r"><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">III.</a></td><td><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">&mdash;THE FLITTING</a></td></tr>

-</table>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;">

-<a href="images/titlepage.jpg">

-<img src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<h1>THE END OF<br />

-ELFINTOWN</h1>

-

-<p class="c"><small>BY</small><br />

-JANE BARLOW<br />

-<small>ILLUSTRATED BY</small><br />

-LAURENCE HOUSMAN<br /><br />

-LONDON<br />

-MACMILLAN &amp; CO.<br />

-1894

-</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1">{1}</a></span></p>

-

-<h2><a name="I_THE_BUILDING" id="I_THE_BUILDING"></a></h2>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 316px;">

-<a href="images/image001.jpg">

-<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="316" height="400" alt="I.&mdash;THE BUILDING" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Now</span> would that he who knew so well<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And how their feud was ended,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2">{2}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Had writ in gold, as I in lead,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For men to learn why Fays be fled,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And whitherward they wended.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">It hapt in ages far agone<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A harmful spell was cast upon<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That Elfin King, great Oberon,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And teen and trouble brought him;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And albeit none can track the skill<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Such perilous mischief wrought him.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">For she by magic showed him clear,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In mirroring crystal of her mere,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3">{3}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ere yet its like were builded;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But thro’ her might of gramarie<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">She made the Elfin Prince to see<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The grandest that on earth should be,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And most by wealth-wand gilded.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For straiter range of Elfin eyes,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But else it had its mortal guise,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No sight, no stir omitted,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With tower and temple, and mart and street,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And prison and palace, all complete,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That hither thither flitted.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4">{4}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Admiring more, and more amazed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Till, when the Witch its image razed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Still in his heart it tarried,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">(A secret that he might not tell),<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And home unto his woodland dell<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That city’s vision, like a spell,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">O’er all his thoughts he carried.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And since that day he dwelled no more<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In joyance blithe as theretofore,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But sadly aye himself he bore<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Amid the sunniest shining;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He dreamed of rarer things than these,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And for their lack was pining.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5">{5}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He shifted oft his couch withal,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet still would chide his chamber,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And cowslip’s gawds of amber.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Hence, on his discontents to brood,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He sat one eve in sorry mood,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">While whispering Elves around him stood,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6">{6}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall build as fair a city.”<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And eagerly at morrow’s light<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He hasted forth to choose a site,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whereon should now be reared aright<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Strong walls and storeys stately.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He found it soon: an earth-plot bare<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Which pleased King Oberon greatly.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No blade of grass, or glint of green,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But pavements ferly smooth and clean;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Small fear of footsteps tripping.”<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Not far away a brook bobbed by:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7">{7}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“From thence,” he said, “we may supply<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Our waterworks; and soothly I<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Then hied him home amain, and shook<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">His drowsy Fays from every nook,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And bade them follow with him, and look<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where splendour should be springing;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And ere the earliest star blinked down<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The first white pebble of Elfintown<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">And now, indeed, industrious days<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Be risen upon the land of Fays,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where every liege his Lord obeys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8">{8}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And toils beside his neighbour.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">They plied them late, they plied them soon,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nay, oft the wan light of a moon<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Swam in to lamp their labour.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No more round Faery-ring they swept<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In mazy measures ere they slept;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But, silent, to his lair each crept,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Limb wearied, sinews aching.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No more they couched in campion’s cell,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Brief rest from task-work taking.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9">{9}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;">

-<a href="images/image009.jpg">

-<img src="images/image009.jpg" width="423" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-<div class="caption">

-

-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10">{10}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11">{11}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To helves of flax-haulm fitted;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">On business more than one can name<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From dawn to dusk they went and came;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">None durst his share refuse for shame,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nor would with sloth be twitted.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And brutish things, that creep and crawl<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Stingless and strong, they did enthrall<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To burdens bear, and pull and haul,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Along the highways goaded;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">There might ye see the Beetle black<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Come lumbering down the dusty track,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With pebble-blocks piled on his back,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or mossy twig-beams loaded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12">{12}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And oft they ponderous weights would heap<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For many a tedious yard must creep,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their drivers by them trudging;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Even nimbler Ants they made submit<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Against the yoke sore grudging.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The work lagged nowise; day by day<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">New mansions rose in rich array<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Beside the paven causey;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Some built of brick, and some of stone,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And roofed with mica slabs that shone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13">{13}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But, fairest amongst all these descried,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Stood in the middle edified<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Palace where the King should bide,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Well worthy a royal master;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of whitest graile its walls, or stained<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With delicate streaks like marble veined,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And pure as alabaster.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">I dare not say how many a line<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">It towered aloft, nor words are mine<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To tell what fancies Faery-fine<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Did hall and chamber garnish,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">All carpeted with hand-spun moss,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That flooring made of smoother gloss<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Than e’er had wax or varnish.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">With couch, and stool, and cushion strown<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For tiger’s skin and panther’s.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their curtains came from spider-looms,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From stamens brushed and anthers.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">A midge-flight from the Palace gate,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">(Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A Fane they reared that matched in state<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15">{15}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">

-<a href="images/image015.jpg">

-<img src="images/image015.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-<div class="caption">

-

-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16">{16}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17">{17}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Famed Athens or Eleusis;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Entablature and pediment;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In double row tall columns went<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Around it, as their use is.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Each from one slab of rush’s pith<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Hewn, like majestic monolith,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The architrave to prop, therewith<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The massy roof upholding.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No Fay but felt a solemn thrill<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To pace its cloistered twilight still<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Mysterious glooms enfolding.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Then from the brook with trenching spade<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18">{18}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And hemlock pipes that bitter made<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The water thro’ them tasted;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Hence, some fastidious Fays would go<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With acorn barrels to and fro,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Till this the King forbade, lest so<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their labour seem but wasted.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Herein alone his fortune frowned:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That in all Fayland was not found<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The fire-snake, lured from underground<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As even-dusk grows dimmer;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Chained there all night with knot and noose,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To make a goodly glimmer.<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20">{20}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19">{19}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">

-<a href="images/image020.jpg">

-<img src="images/image020.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-<div class="caption">

-

-<p><i>Copyright by Macmillan &amp; Co. 1894</i></p></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21">{21}</a></span></p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">But who so fain as Oberon,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That watched as every morn outshone<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">His peerless city waxing on,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">While in its growth he gloried?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Triumphant joy it gave the King<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To see each straw-plank scaffolding<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Wide-windowed, many-storied.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And ever his stirring Elves amid<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He walked, and spied on all they did,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And toilers praised, and idlers chid,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With earnest speech and eager;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Till, swift as blades in April-time<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Keeps but a record meagre.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Seeing all to such perfection wrought,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That Fays might well repose have sought,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From toil returned to pleasure.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Howbeit, not so their King inclined,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For fast as sped the works designed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That wist not bound or measure.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Oft as from Palace towers he eyed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That spacious plain, as oft he sighed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To see it planted far and wide<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With street-rows thick as stubble.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That needs must be restored again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23">{23}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Did Elfin labours double.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Thus, by the malice of the skies,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And tasks their King would still devise,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Fays beheld new toils arise<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To bar their hope of resting;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As he who from the strand hath swum,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">While in his ear the surges hum,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Sees evermore to meet him come<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">White flocks of billows cresting.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Which when at last they clearly knew,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Deep discontent upon them grew,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or piled up clay or pebble,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or hoisted load with strain and heft,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or grained a door with fingers deft<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24">{24}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">At heart was half a rebel.<br /></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 216px;">

-<a href="images/image024.jpg">

-<img src="images/image024.jpg" width="216" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25">{25}</a></span></p>

-

-<h2><a name="II_THE_COUNCIL" id="II_THE_COUNCIL"></a></h2>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">

-<a href="images/image025.jpg">

-<img src="images/image025.jpg" width="258" height="400" alt="II.&mdash;THE COUNCIL" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">So</span>, after setting of a sun,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">When all their day’s long coil was done,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26">{26}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Beneath the moonbeams trembled,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Called to a chosen meeting-place,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To talk about their evil case<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Elfin folk assembled.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To see them fagged and labour-worn,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their dainty garments stained and torn,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Forms bowed with weary stooping;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Most like a bed of windflowers frail,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What time a shower of pelting hail<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Hath smirched with mould the petals pale<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And left the bruised stalks drooping.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Now sighing loud, now moaning low,<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28">{28}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27">{27}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;">

-<a href="images/image028.jpg">

-<img src="images/image028.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29">{29}</a></span></p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Among the shivering blossoms, so<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Among the Elves upstarted<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A wail of voices small and shrill,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That swelled and sank commingled, still<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lamenting o’er their present ill<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or ancient bliss departed.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Renowned his Faery feres among,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“To bid you ’ware the direful dread,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">By gathering glooms and shadows spread,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Wherewith our days are darkened.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The eyes to blind and feet to snare,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That else a path would find and fare<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From forth its grim embrasure,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Behoves us seek from whence they flit,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">These shades that on our lives have lit,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For so, perchance, a way we hit,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Back to the beamy azure.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Here let us pause and ask ourselves<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Why this one hews, why that one delves,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Finch waking, chafer whirring.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What graceless freak of spiteful change<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Who wont down all the dells to range<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31">{31}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“What joy have ye to cleave the clod,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or down the creaking cart-track plod,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or up the ladder dizzy?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This piteous plight declares ye must<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lament the charge upon you thrust<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That makes you bondslaves busy.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Where now be flown the mirthful hours<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Gay sports on greensward airy?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Have these things now no more delights<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32">{32}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For heart of woodland Faery?<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“But if one saith: ‘The King commands<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This irksome service at our hands,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lest traitorous act accuse him’&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To such: The ancient laws (I say),<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Point duly where we must obey,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And where, unblamed, refuse him.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Since for this cause we crowned his head:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That long as Elfin sports be sped,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He still should rule the maze we tread,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">When every Faery traces<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Even as the planet lamps that swing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33">{33}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In shimmering cirques around <i>their</i> King,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Hence, if for us he prove indeed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No sun-bright orb our step to lead,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That traveller’s foot betrayeth,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall we our lightsome paths forsake<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lured as his false gleam playeth?<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Yea, of the King I ask: To thee<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Were given for lieges Faeries free,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or creeping things whose toil we see<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">By niggard Nature spurred on?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34">{34}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">They twist the thread, they store the grain,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And thus, at least, their portion gain;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That win nor gift nor guerdon.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Yet, furthermore, and haply first<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In import grave: some spell accurst,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thus in our King sets burning;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For I long since have deemed to mark<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Flash from his eye a fitful spark,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Enkindled by those sorceries dark<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That steal the wits’ discerning.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“How else should he, who erst had known<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">His dwelling choose of stock and stone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35">{35}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Save folly planned by one distraught<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With some fantastic whimsy?<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or hear it said that I for sloth<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Mine owed allegiance scanted;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I less could brook the Fay-folk still<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Enslaved to work the warlock’s will<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Who hath our King enchanted.”<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To words that voice their discontent,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Long felt but lowly muttered.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And Elfdore from among them next<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Arose, his gentle spirit vext,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And much with jarring griefs perplext,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As mournful speech he uttered:<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And sorer ills that threat them;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Those days ere yet our bliss declined&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What Elf can once forget them?<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Your heaviest task to plot some prank,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With sun that rose, and sun that sank,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No Faery’s gladness vanished.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But very vainly lend I speech<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In few, what dismal tracts we reach,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From former weal far-banished:<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“That, when our green-ywimpled wood,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lets vermeil dawn a path make good<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where many a dim shade drowseth,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No more, as once, its burgeoning light<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But signal-fire that weary wight<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To loathëd labour rouseth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“And when the West’s curved crystalline<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The rubied rim was crowning,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And leave our cares a little space<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In dreamless slumber drowning.’<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In slavish bonds our days are clipped,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Blank silence, whither fleeing<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">We respite seek&mdash;holds life its worth?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What joy were minished on the earth<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">If Faeries ceased from being?<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;">

-<a href="images/image039.jpg">

-<img src="images/image039.jpg" width="432" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-<div class="caption">

-

-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40">{40}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41">{41}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“And not on you alone this yoke<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of bondage falls; an humbler folk<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">First tinkled clinking yonder;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I oft remorseful ponder.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“My heart grows hot when yearnings vain<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Amid their garnered treasure.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To hear the unsightly Spider sob,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">When from her loom the weft we rob,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Wove with such pride and pleasure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42">{42}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“And still when harnessed Snail or Slug<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I watch the hated wain-load tug,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Hath past me, panting, lumbered,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Reproachful twinges wring my mind,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For so we twofold burdens bind<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Unwieldy frames have cumbered.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I fare as foot that nettle flees,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But which barbed thistle lameth;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What time I heard an Elf suggest<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That Fays should scorn their King’s behest<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Since overmuch he claimeth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Let Oberon but anon draw nigh<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With joyful mien and sparkling eye,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Our bootless tasks admiring,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And, doubting naught of hearers glad,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Begin to tell new projects mad&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">All Elfland’s strength requiring,<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Then, wistful, pause my face to scan<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And read approval of his plan<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Trow, if for very ruth I can<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">There brook him vainly seek it.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nay, if I knew one word whose might<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Could all his hopes forbid and blight,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In truth ’twere hard to speak it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44">{44}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“But for the cause that Elfrain deems<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A Wizard, who our ruin schemes<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With arts beyond our foiling;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">So fell a thought I dare not think<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That leadeth to a misery’s brink,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In anguish back recoiling.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Our case my counsel mocks. I rede<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">We Elfmel call, and straitly heed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The word he speaks; for if, indeed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Then all around rang eager cries:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“Let Elfmel speak&mdash;let him advise”&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And he, at clamour’s loudest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45">{45}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Stood forth upon the beechen stage;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Not old, for Faeries know not age,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But past his peers reputed sage,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Such fame his wit achieveth;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">True to the mark his winged words went,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet clear to show their thought’s intent<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As air that arrow cleaveth:<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I long have known for truth” (he said);<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“No mortal guile the snare hath spread<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where Oberon lies entangled;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nor lives who thus awry could twitch<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">His sense, or fool to such a pitch,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Aye plotting ills new-fangled.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“And, wot ye well, if aught avail<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To countercharm her magic’s bale,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whose mischief sore we so bewail,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Plunged in this dire quandáry,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">One only may her marring mend&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Oft proved to folk of Faery.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Yet, he who would her pity awake,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A perilous path must undertake,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For far beside her Lonesome Lake<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A slumbrous trance hath bound her,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where evermore a silence deep,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Like trusty sentinel, must keep<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That laps its dreams around her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47">{47}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Beyond the next each sound fails lost;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The third fends off both fire and frost,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">How fierce so e’er their noyance;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The fifth bars memory and regret;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The seventh all hope and joyance.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Still may her helpful might be sought,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Still may her ruthful heart be raught,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Albeit by steps with peril fraught,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Down dim paths danger-ridden;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That, save for cure of grievous harms,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To utter I am forbidden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48">{48}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“And erst deemed I that haply soon,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As film-flakes floating by the moon<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And one brief moment dim it,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Even so from us our cares might drift<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Fleeting and fading soft and swift;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But nay; their pall shows never a rift,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their shade-sweep never a limit.<br /></span>

-</div>

-<div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">’Tis time to her we make appeal<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And lure him from his madness;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And list ye on this mission trust<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">My zeal and truth, her power august<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Will I beseech, till yield it must<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A boon to work us gladness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49">{49}</a></span>”<br /></span>

-</div></div></div>

-

-<div class="figright" style="width: 213px;">

-<a href="images/image049.jpg">

-<img src="images/image049.jpg" width="213" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The voice of clustering Elfin groups<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Rose up, his speech approving;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And cried that in such embassage<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No worthier Elf could e’er engage;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And bade him speed the task whose wage<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Should be their woe’s removing.<br /></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50">{50}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51">{51}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<h2><a name="III_THE_FLITTING" id="III_THE_FLITTING"></a></h2>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 283px;">

-<a href="images/image051.jpg">

-<img src="images/image051.jpg" width="283" height="400" alt="III.&mdash;THE FLITTING" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hence</span>, when the dawn looked dewiest,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52">{52}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">While still the King lay dreaming;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But&mdash;since his se’ennight’s peril dared<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Were long to tell&mdash;he home repaired<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">When Elfintown at sunset flared,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With roofs and windows gleaming.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He came, in sooth, at time of need,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Because the King had just decreed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A task that should all tasks exceed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And even the loftiest plantain-spike<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Peer in prodigious pride o’er.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Not empty-handed Elfmel came:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A mirror wan in dark-wove frame<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53">{53}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Witch had sent, and o’er the same<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Breathed many a murmur mystic;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In size it matched the rain-drop pearled<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">At broadest blade-point; round it curled<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With sentence Kabalistic.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The which, if hung ere fall of night<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Would show him such a vision<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As must his frenzy scare away:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Quoth she; yet more she would not say,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But sped the Elf on his mission.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">This Elfmel did anon relate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54">{54}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To his comrades, met in grave debate,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Who joyed to learn their evil estate<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Might now eftsoons be mended.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And twain in haste by secret stair<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What time he bode all unaware<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of aught his Elves intended.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Methinks when dimness round them closed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The drift of night’s pale lily;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whereon the fluttering petal flees,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To light and linger stilly.<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55">{55}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">

-<a href="images/image055.jpg">

-<img src="images/image055.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56">{56}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57">{57}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Some soft as drowsy finches sung:<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Till night star-bright,” they twittered;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">While others kept a mien more grave,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For somewhat still their minds misgave<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That care so blithe an end should have<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Which long their lives embittered.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To see red light the east distain,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That Oberon should rouse again<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From slumbers gramarie-haunted;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For then they must behold a sign<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">If verily to that spell benign<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Had yielded, quelled and daunted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58">{58}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And ’mid the mists of morning-tide<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thronged to the Palace court they hied;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And, lo, the massy door flung wide,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And Oberon thro’ it pacing.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Sad was his look, as if he grieved<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of long-deluding hope bereaved,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or fairest myth, too much believed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Truth-touched with finger effacing.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Forth paced he to as mute a hush<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As falls upon the twittering bush<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their motley tyrant, coming;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For never a Fay durst move, in fear<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lest haply so should fail his ear<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The words he held his breath to hear<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Above his heart’s thick drumming.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59">{59}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Nor any sound from earth or sky<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That silence flawed, save if thereby<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Stamped foot and tugged at tether;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or shrilled a sharper note than that<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And twirled lean legs together.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Strange tidings unto you I bring,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">My faithful Fays,” so spake the King<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“For in this night a wondrous thing<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Was shown me as I slumbered;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A wondrous thing and piteous both,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For against itself my heart grows wroth<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To think how I have abused your troth,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And worked you woes unnumbered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60">{60}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To trace these tracks of labour vain,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This witless work to gaze on;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As if all round on boards and blocks<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I read my folly’s blazon.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Yet bitterer far to feel the while<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That every huge-erected pile<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From Elfin race exacted.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of mind with charms distracted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61">{61}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“And now the night-sent sign, that snaps<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Wherein Fate hid our future haps,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And me its portent teacheth<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">’Tis fit that yet one further task<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I of your tried allegiance ask&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That here your aid beseecheth:<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“I charge you that forthright ye haste<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To lay this cursëd city waste;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Let wall be breached, and site erased,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Pluck down both roof and rafter;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Leave not a stone on stone to stand;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Faery folk such toils demand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In all the ages after.”<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Thereat uprose a jubilant shout<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From all who hearkened round about,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For so they knew beyond a doubt<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">King Oberon’s craze departed.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“Swift be the King’s command obeyed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">But Oberon, still of mien deject,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their strain exultant heard and checked<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With lifted palm and pale aspect,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That motioned silence thro’ them.<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63">{63}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">

-<a href="images/image063.jpg">

-<img src="images/image063.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-<div class="caption">

-

-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64">{64}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65">{65}</a></span>&#160; </p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Not so,” spake he in accents grave,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">“No more for us the deep woods wave,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Down yon cool shades all care to flee,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And very fain would watch your glee<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Wax as in good days golden&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For, lo, the dream, whose power undid<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">So fair a hope withholden.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66">{66}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">When Earthland first felt Elfin tread&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But whence, or how, or why we sped,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">I wot our wisest knows not&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The Fate who did our journeyings guide<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This ball must aye our dwelling bide,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A prison whose doors unclose not.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“That weird-night’s vision warns me so&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Long since to me confiding<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The word whereby, if need befal,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Aërial chariots I may call,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67">{67}</a></span><br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">“Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">So dear our haunts by flood and feld,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That evermore I hoped and held<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Such word need ne’er be spoken,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Now from me wrung by darkening doom,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As menace-murk of thunder-gloom<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ere yet the storm hath broken.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">“No plainer speech my lips dare frame;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But, soothly, had ye seen the same,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Each idle moment would ye blame<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That us from flight doth sever,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Not loitering o’er what rests to do<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Ere hence we float up yonder blue,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Self-exiled from the paths we knew&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For ever and for ever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68">{68}</a></span>”<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">I trow that every Fay who heard<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet none lamented, none demurred,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Or against his will besought him;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">For in his steadfast-mournful eyne<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">They could some fatal truth divine,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Tho’ none might know what boding sign<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To stern resolve had wrought him.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">What vision from that mirror’s breast<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">So filled with fear and wonder.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Some say that unto him were shown<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Days when round earth, once green and lone,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69">{69}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And say he saw or ever he woke<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">World weeded o’er from prime to prime<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">With want, and woe, and care, and crime,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That halts such burden under.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Made haste to raze those mansions proud;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">To crash of timbers falling,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">As toppling towers at onslaught rude<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70">{70}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Slipped homeward, warily crawling.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">He spied no Elfin doings there,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And only heard a rustle<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">This was the end of Elfintown,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Built with such coil and bustle.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i2">Then Oberon spake the word of might<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That set the enchanted cars in sight;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But lore I lack to tell aright<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72">{72}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71">{71}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 422px;">

-<a href="images/image072.jpg">

-<img src="images/image072.jpg" width="422" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

-<div class="caption">

-

-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>

-</div>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73">{73}</a></span></p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Where these had waited hidden.<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Perchance the clear airs round us rolled<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">In secret cells did them enfold,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Like evening dew that none behold<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Till to the sward ’tis slidden.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And who can say what wizardise<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And given them power to stoop and rise<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">More high than thought hath travelled?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">But more of meteor’s luminous mist,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">All girt with strands of seven-hued twist<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">From rainbow’s verge unravelled.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">’Tis said, and I believe it well,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That whoso mounts their magic sell,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Goes, if he list, invisible<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Beneath the broadest noonlight;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That virtue comes of Faery-fern,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Flame-fronded in the moonlight;<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">For this holds true&mdash;too true, alas!&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">The sky that eve was clear as glass,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet no man saw the Faeries pass<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Where azure pathways glisten;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">And true it is&mdash;too true, ay me&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">That nevermore on lawn or lea<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall mortal man a Faery see,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Tho’ long he look and listen.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Only the twilit woods among<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75">{75}</a></span><br /></span>

-<span class="i0">A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Beyond sky-reaches hollow;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Still further, fainter up the height,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Receding past the deep-zoned night&mdash;<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">Faint call of Fays who follow:<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>)&#160; &#160;  Red-rose mists o’erdrift<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Moth-moon’s glimmering white,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Lit by sheen-silled west<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Barred with fiery bar;<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Fleeting, following swift,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Whither across the night<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Seek we bourne of rest?<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76">{76}</a></span>

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>)&#160; &#160;&#160; &#160;  Afar.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) Vailing crest on crest<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Down the shadowy height,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Earth with shores and seas<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Dropt, a dwindling gleam.<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Dusk, and bowery nest,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Dawn, and dells dew-bright,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">What shall bide of these?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) &#160; &#160; A dream.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; Fled, ah fled, our sight.<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Yea, but thrills of fire<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Throbbed adown yon deep,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Faint and very far<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Who shall rede aright?<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Say, what wafts us nigher,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Beckoning up the steep?<br /></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77">{77}</a></span><span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) A star.<br /></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; List, a star! a star!<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Oh, our goal of light!<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Yet the winged shades sweep,<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Yet the void looms vast.<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Weary our wild dreams are:<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">When shall cease our flight<br /></span>

-<span class="i20">Soft on shores of sleep?<br /></span>

-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) At last.<br /></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="figleft" style="width: 210px;">

-<a href="images/image077.jpg">

-<img src="images/image077.jpg" width="210" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>

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+
+.figright    {float:right;clear:right;margin-left:1em;margin-bottom:1em;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0;padding:0;text-align:center;}
+
+ h1 {margin-top:5%;text-align:center;clear:both;
+font-weight:normal;}
+
+ h2 {margin-top:4%;margin-bottom:2%;text-align:center;clear:both;
+ font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;}
+
+ hr.full {width: 60%;margin:2% auto 2% auto;border-top:1px solid black;
+padding:.1em;border-bottom:1px solid black;border-left:none;border-right:none;}
+
+ img {border:none;}
+
+ p {margin-top:.2em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.2em;text-indent:4%;}
+
+.pagenum  {font-style:normal;position:absolute;
+left:95%;font-size:55%;text-align:right;color:gray;
+background-color:#ffffff;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0em;}
+
+small {font-size: 70%;}
+
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+div.poem {font-size:100%;margin:auto auto;text-indent:0%;
+display: inline-block; text-align: left;}
+.poem .stanza     {margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom:1em;
+line-height:1.75em;}
+.poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i20     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
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+
+table {margin:2% auto;border:2px solid gray;}
+
+.r {text-align:right;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67883 ***</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/cover.jpg">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" height="500" alt="[The
+image of the book's cover is unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<table cellpadding="0">
+<tr><td class="c" colspan="3"><b>CONTENTS</b></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r"><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">I.</a></td><td><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">&mdash;THE BUILDING</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r"><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">II.</a></td><td><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">&mdash;THE COUNCIL</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r"><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">III.</a></td><td><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">&mdash;THE FLITTING</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;">
+<a href="images/titlepage.jpg">
+<img src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<h1>THE END OF<br />
+ELFINTOWN</h1>
+
+<p class="c"><small>BY</small><br />
+JANE BARLOW<br />
+<small>ILLUSTRATED BY</small><br />
+LAURENCE HOUSMAN<br /><br />
+LONDON<br />
+MACMILLAN &amp; CO.<br />
+1894
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1">{1}</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="I_THE_BUILDING" id="I_THE_BUILDING"></a></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 316px;">
+<a href="images/image001.jpg">
+<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="316" height="400" alt="I.&mdash;THE BUILDING" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Now</span> would that he who knew so well<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And how their feud was ended,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2">{2}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had writ in gold, as I in lead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For men to learn why Fays be fled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And whitherward they wended.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">It hapt in ages far agone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A harmful spell was cast upon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Elfin King, great Oberon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And teen and trouble brought him;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And albeit none can track the skill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such perilous mischief wrought him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For she by magic showed him clear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In mirroring crystal of her mere,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3">{3}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere yet its like were builded;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But thro’ her might of gramarie<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She made the Elfin Prince to see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The grandest that on earth should be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And most by wealth-wand gilded.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For straiter range of Elfin eyes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But else it had its mortal guise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sight, no stir omitted,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With tower and temple, and mart and street,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And prison and palace, all complete,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That hither thither flitted.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4">{4}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Admiring more, and more amazed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till, when the Witch its image razed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still in his heart it tarried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(A secret that he might not tell),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And home unto his woodland dell<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That city’s vision, like a spell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O’er all his thoughts he carried.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And since that day he dwelled no more<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In joyance blithe as theretofore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But sadly aye himself he bore<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Amid the sunniest shining;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He dreamed of rarer things than these,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And for their lack was pining.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5">{5}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He shifted oft his couch withal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet still would chide his chamber,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cowslip’s gawds of amber.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Hence, on his discontents to brood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He sat one eve in sorry mood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While whispering Elves around him stood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6">{6}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall build as fair a city.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And eagerly at morrow’s light<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He hasted forth to choose a site,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whereon should now be reared aright<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Strong walls and storeys stately.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He found it soon: an earth-plot bare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which pleased King Oberon greatly.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No blade of grass, or glint of green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But pavements ferly smooth and clean;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Small fear of footsteps tripping.”<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not far away a brook bobbed by:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7">{7}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“From thence,” he said, “we may supply<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our waterworks; and soothly I<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then hied him home amain, and shook<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His drowsy Fays from every nook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bade them follow with him, and look<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where splendour should be springing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And ere the earliest star blinked down<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The first white pebble of Elfintown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">And now, indeed, industrious days<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be risen upon the land of Fays,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where every liege his Lord obeys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8">{8}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And toils beside his neighbour.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They plied them late, they plied them soon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, oft the wan light of a moon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Swam in to lamp their labour.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No more round Faery-ring they swept<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In mazy measures ere they slept;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, silent, to his lair each crept,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Limb wearied, sinews aching.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No more they couched in campion’s cell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Brief rest from task-work taking.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9">{9}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;">
+<a href="images/image009.jpg">
+<img src="images/image009.jpg" width="423" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10">{10}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11">{11}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To helves of flax-haulm fitted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On business more than one can name<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From dawn to dusk they went and came;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">None durst his share refuse for shame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor would with sloth be twitted.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And brutish things, that creep and crawl<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stingless and strong, they did enthrall<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To burdens bear, and pull and haul,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Along the highways goaded;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There might ye see the Beetle black<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come lumbering down the dusty track,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With pebble-blocks piled on his back,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or mossy twig-beams loaded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12">{12}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And oft they ponderous weights would heap<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For many a tedious yard must creep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their drivers by them trudging;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even nimbler Ants they made submit<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Against the yoke sore grudging.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The work lagged nowise; day by day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">New mansions rose in rich array<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beside the paven causey;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some built of brick, and some of stone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And roofed with mica slabs that shone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13">{13}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But, fairest amongst all these descried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stood in the middle edified<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Palace where the King should bide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Well worthy a royal master;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of whitest graile its walls, or stained<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With delicate streaks like marble veined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And pure as alabaster.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">I dare not say how many a line<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It towered aloft, nor words are mine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To tell what fancies Faery-fine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Did hall and chamber garnish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All carpeted with hand-spun moss,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That flooring made of smoother gloss<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than e’er had wax or varnish.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">With couch, and stool, and cushion strown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For tiger’s skin and panther’s.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their curtains came from spider-looms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From stamens brushed and anthers.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A midge-flight from the Palace gate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Fane they reared that matched in state<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15">{15}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">
+<a href="images/image015.jpg">
+<img src="images/image015.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16">{16}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17">{17}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Famed Athens or Eleusis;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Entablature and pediment;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In double row tall columns went<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Around it, as their use is.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Each from one slab of rush’s pith<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hewn, like majestic monolith,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The architrave to prop, therewith<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The massy roof upholding.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No Fay but felt a solemn thrill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To pace its cloistered twilight still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mysterious glooms enfolding.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then from the brook with trenching spade<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18">{18}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hemlock pipes that bitter made<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The water thro’ them tasted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hence, some fastidious Fays would go<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With acorn barrels to and fro,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till this the King forbade, lest so<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their labour seem but wasted.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Herein alone his fortune frowned:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That in all Fayland was not found<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fire-snake, lured from underground<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As even-dusk grows dimmer;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Chained there all night with knot and noose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To make a goodly glimmer.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20">{20}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19">{19}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<a href="images/image020.jpg">
+<img src="images/image020.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright by Macmillan &amp; Co. 1894</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21">{21}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">But who so fain as Oberon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That watched as every morn outshone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His peerless city waxing on,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While in its growth he gloried?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Triumphant joy it gave the King<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see each straw-plank scaffolding<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wide-windowed, many-storied.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ever his stirring Elves amid<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He walked, and spied on all they did,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And toilers praised, and idlers chid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With earnest speech and eager;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till, swift as blades in April-time<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Keeps but a record meagre.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seeing all to such perfection wrought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Fays might well repose have sought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From toil returned to pleasure.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Howbeit, not so their King inclined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For fast as sped the works designed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That wist not bound or measure.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Oft as from Palace towers he eyed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That spacious plain, as oft he sighed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see it planted far and wide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With street-rows thick as stubble.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That needs must be restored again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23">{23}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Did Elfin labours double.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Thus, by the malice of the skies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And tasks their King would still devise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Fays beheld new toils arise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bar their hope of resting;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he who from the strand hath swum,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While in his ear the surges hum,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sees evermore to meet him come<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">White flocks of billows cresting.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Which when at last they clearly knew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep discontent upon them grew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or piled up clay or pebble,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hoisted load with strain and heft,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or grained a door with fingers deft<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24">{24}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At heart was half a rebel.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 216px;">
+<a href="images/image024.jpg">
+<img src="images/image024.jpg" width="216" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25">{25}</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="II_THE_COUNCIL" id="II_THE_COUNCIL"></a></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">
+<a href="images/image025.jpg">
+<img src="images/image025.jpg" width="258" height="400" alt="II.&mdash;THE COUNCIL" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">So</span>, after setting of a sun,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When all their day’s long coil was done,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26">{26}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath the moonbeams trembled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Called to a chosen meeting-place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To talk about their evil case<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Elfin folk assembled.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see them fagged and labour-worn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their dainty garments stained and torn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forms bowed with weary stooping;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Most like a bed of windflowers frail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What time a shower of pelting hail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath smirched with mould the petals pale<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And left the bruised stalks drooping.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now sighing loud, now moaning low,<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28">{28}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27">{27}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;">
+<a href="images/image028.jpg">
+<img src="images/image028.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29">{29}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Among the shivering blossoms, so<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Among the Elves upstarted<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wail of voices small and shrill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That swelled and sank commingled, still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lamenting o’er their present ill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or ancient bliss departed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Renowned his Faery feres among,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“To bid you ’ware the direful dread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By gathering glooms and shadows spread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherewith our days are darkened.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The eyes to blind and feet to snare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That else a path would find and fare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From forth its grim embrasure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Behoves us seek from whence they flit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">These shades that on our lives have lit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For so, perchance, a way we hit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Back to the beamy azure.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here let us pause and ask ourselves<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why this one hews, why that one delves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Finch waking, chafer whirring.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What graceless freak of spiteful change<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who wont down all the dells to range<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31">{31}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“What joy have ye to cleave the clod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or down the creaking cart-track plod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or up the ladder dizzy?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This piteous plight declares ye must<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lament the charge upon you thrust<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That makes you bondslaves busy.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Where now be flown the mirthful hours<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gay sports on greensward airy?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Have these things now no more delights<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32">{32}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For heart of woodland Faery?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“But if one saith: ‘The King commands<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This irksome service at our hands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest traitorous act accuse him’&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To such: The ancient laws (I say),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Point duly where we must obey,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And where, unblamed, refuse him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Since for this cause we crowned his head:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That long as Elfin sports be sped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He still should rule the maze we tread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When every Faery traces<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even as the planet lamps that swing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33">{33}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In shimmering cirques around <i>their</i> King,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Hence, if for us he prove indeed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sun-bright orb our step to lead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That traveller’s foot betrayeth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall we our lightsome paths forsake<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lured as his false gleam playeth?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yea, of the King I ask: To thee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were given for lieges Faeries free,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or creeping things whose toil we see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By niggard Nature spurred on?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34">{34}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They twist the thread, they store the grain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And thus, at least, their portion gain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That win nor gift nor guerdon.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Yet, furthermore, and haply first<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In import grave: some spell accurst,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thus in our King sets burning;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I long since have deemed to mark<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flash from his eye a fitful spark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enkindled by those sorceries dark<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That steal the wits’ discerning.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“How else should he, who erst had known<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His dwelling choose of stock and stone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35">{35}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Save folly planned by one distraught<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With some fantastic whimsy?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hear it said that I for sloth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mine owed allegiance scanted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I less could brook the Fay-folk still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enslaved to work the warlock’s will<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who hath our King enchanted.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To words that voice their discontent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Long felt but lowly muttered.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Elfdore from among them next<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Arose, his gentle spirit vext,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And much with jarring griefs perplext,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As mournful speech he uttered:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sorer ills that threat them;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Those days ere yet our bliss declined&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What Elf can once forget them?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Your heaviest task to plot some prank,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With sun that rose, and sun that sank,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No Faery’s gladness vanished.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But very vainly lend I speech<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In few, what dismal tracts we reach,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From former weal far-banished:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“That, when our green-ywimpled wood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lets vermeil dawn a path make good<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where many a dim shade drowseth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No more, as once, its burgeoning light<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But signal-fire that weary wight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To loathëd labour rouseth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And when the West’s curved crystalline<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The rubied rim was crowning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And leave our cares a little space<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In dreamless slumber drowning.’<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In slavish bonds our days are clipped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Blank silence, whither fleeing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We respite seek&mdash;holds life its worth?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What joy were minished on the earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If Faeries ceased from being?<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;">
+<a href="images/image039.jpg">
+<img src="images/image039.jpg" width="432" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40">{40}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41">{41}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“And not on you alone this yoke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of bondage falls; an humbler folk<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">First tinkled clinking yonder;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I oft remorseful ponder.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“My heart grows hot when yearnings vain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Amid their garnered treasure.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To hear the unsightly Spider sob,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When from her loom the weft we rob,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wove with such pride and pleasure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42">{42}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And still when harnessed Snail or Slug<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I watch the hated wain-load tug,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath past me, panting, lumbered,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Reproachful twinges wring my mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For so we twofold burdens bind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unwieldy frames have cumbered.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I fare as foot that nettle flees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But which barbed thistle lameth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What time I heard an Elf suggest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Fays should scorn their King’s behest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since overmuch he claimeth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let Oberon but anon draw nigh<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With joyful mien and sparkling eye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our bootless tasks admiring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, doubting naught of hearers glad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Begin to tell new projects mad&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All Elfland’s strength requiring,<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Then, wistful, pause my face to scan<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And read approval of his plan<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Trow, if for very ruth I can<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There brook him vainly seek it.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, if I knew one word whose might<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Could all his hopes forbid and blight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In truth ’twere hard to speak it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44">{44}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But for the cause that Elfrain deems<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Wizard, who our ruin schemes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With arts beyond our foiling;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So fell a thought I dare not think<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That leadeth to a misery’s brink,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In anguish back recoiling.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Our case my counsel mocks. I rede<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We Elfmel call, and straitly heed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The word he speaks; for if, indeed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then all around rang eager cries:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Let Elfmel speak&mdash;let him advise”&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he, at clamour’s loudest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45">{45}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stood forth upon the beechen stage;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not old, for Faeries know not age,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But past his peers reputed sage,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such fame his wit achieveth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">True to the mark his winged words went,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet clear to show their thought’s intent<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As air that arrow cleaveth:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I long have known for truth” (he said);<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“No mortal guile the snare hath spread<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where Oberon lies entangled;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor lives who thus awry could twitch<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His sense, or fool to such a pitch,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Aye plotting ills new-fangled.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And, wot ye well, if aught avail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To countercharm her magic’s bale,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose mischief sore we so bewail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Plunged in this dire quandáry,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One only may her marring mend&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oft proved to folk of Faery.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yet, he who would her pity awake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A perilous path must undertake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For far beside her Lonesome Lake<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A slumbrous trance hath bound her,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where evermore a silence deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like trusty sentinel, must keep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That laps its dreams around her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47">{47}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond the next each sound fails lost;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The third fends off both fire and frost,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How fierce so e’er their noyance;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fifth bars memory and regret;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The seventh all hope and joyance.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Still may her helpful might be sought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still may her ruthful heart be raught,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Albeit by steps with peril fraught,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Down dim paths danger-ridden;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That, save for cure of grievous harms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To utter I am forbidden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48">{48}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And erst deemed I that haply soon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As film-flakes floating by the moon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And one brief moment dim it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even so from us our cares might drift<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fleeting and fading soft and swift;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But nay; their pall shows never a rift,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their shade-sweep never a limit.<br /></span>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">’Tis time to her we make appeal<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And lure him from his madness;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And list ye on this mission trust<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My zeal and truth, her power august<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will I beseech, till yield it must<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A boon to work us gladness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49">{49}</a></span>”<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 213px;">
+<a href="images/image049.jpg">
+<img src="images/image049.jpg" width="213" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The voice of clustering Elfin groups<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rose up, his speech approving;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cried that in such embassage<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No worthier Elf could e’er engage;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bade him speed the task whose wage<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should be their woe’s removing.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50">{50}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51">{51}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<h2><a name="III_THE_FLITTING" id="III_THE_FLITTING"></a></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 283px;">
+<a href="images/image051.jpg">
+<img src="images/image051.jpg" width="283" height="400" alt="III.&mdash;THE FLITTING" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hence</span>, when the dawn looked dewiest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52">{52}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While still the King lay dreaming;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But&mdash;since his se’ennight’s peril dared<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were long to tell&mdash;he home repaired<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When Elfintown at sunset flared,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With roofs and windows gleaming.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He came, in sooth, at time of need,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because the King had just decreed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A task that should all tasks exceed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And even the loftiest plantain-spike<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Peer in prodigious pride o’er.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Not empty-handed Elfmel came:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A mirror wan in dark-wove frame<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53">{53}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Witch had sent, and o’er the same<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathed many a murmur mystic;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In size it matched the rain-drop pearled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At broadest blade-point; round it curled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With sentence Kabalistic.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The which, if hung ere fall of night<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would show him such a vision<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As must his frenzy scare away:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Quoth she; yet more she would not say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But sped the Elf on his mission.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">This Elfmel did anon relate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54">{54}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To his comrades, met in grave debate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who joyed to learn their evil estate<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Might now eftsoons be mended.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And twain in haste by secret stair<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What time he bode all unaware<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of aught his Elves intended.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Methinks when dimness round them closed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The drift of night’s pale lily;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whereon the fluttering petal flees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To light and linger stilly.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55">{55}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<a href="images/image055.jpg">
+<img src="images/image055.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56">{56}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57">{57}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Some soft as drowsy finches sung:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till night star-bright,” they twittered;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While others kept a mien more grave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For somewhat still their minds misgave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That care so blithe an end should have<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which long their lives embittered.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see red light the east distain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Oberon should rouse again<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From slumbers gramarie-haunted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For then they must behold a sign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If verily to that spell benign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had yielded, quelled and daunted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58">{58}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ’mid the mists of morning-tide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thronged to the Palace court they hied;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, lo, the massy door flung wide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Oberon thro’ it pacing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sad was his look, as if he grieved<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of long-deluding hope bereaved,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or fairest myth, too much believed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Truth-touched with finger effacing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Forth paced he to as mute a hush<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As falls upon the twittering bush<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their motley tyrant, coming;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For never a Fay durst move, in fear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest haply so should fail his ear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The words he held his breath to hear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Above his heart’s thick drumming.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59">{59}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nor any sound from earth or sky<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That silence flawed, save if thereby<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stamped foot and tugged at tether;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or shrilled a sharper note than that<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And twirled lean legs together.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Strange tidings unto you I bring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My faithful Fays,” so spake the King<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“For in this night a wondrous thing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was shown me as I slumbered;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wondrous thing and piteous both,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For against itself my heart grows wroth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To think how I have abused your troth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And worked you woes unnumbered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60">{60}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To trace these tracks of labour vain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This witless work to gaze on;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As if all round on boards and blocks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I read my folly’s blazon.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yet bitterer far to feel the while<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That every huge-erected pile<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From Elfin race exacted.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of mind with charms distracted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61">{61}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“And now the night-sent sign, that snaps<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherein Fate hid our future haps,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And me its portent teacheth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">’Tis fit that yet one further task<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I of your tried allegiance ask&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That here your aid beseecheth:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“I charge you that forthright ye haste<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To lay this cursëd city waste;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let wall be breached, and site erased,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pluck down both roof and rafter;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave not a stone on stone to stand;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Faery folk such toils demand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In all the ages after.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Thereat uprose a jubilant shout<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From all who hearkened round about,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For so they knew beyond a doubt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">King Oberon’s craze departed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Swift be the King’s command obeyed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">But Oberon, still of mien deject,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their strain exultant heard and checked<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With lifted palm and pale aspect,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That motioned silence thro’ them.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63">{63}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">
+<a href="images/image063.jpg">
+<img src="images/image063.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64">{64}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65">{65}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Not so,” spake he in accents grave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“No more for us the deep woods wave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Down yon cool shades all care to flee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And very fain would watch your glee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wax as in good days golden&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For, lo, the dream, whose power undid<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So fair a hope withholden.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66">{66}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When Earthland first felt Elfin tread&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But whence, or how, or why we sped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I wot our wisest knows not&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Fate who did our journeyings guide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This ball must aye our dwelling bide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A prison whose doors unclose not.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“That weird-night’s vision warns me so&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Long since to me confiding<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The word whereby, if need befal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Aërial chariots I may call,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67">{67}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So dear our haunts by flood and feld,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That evermore I hoped and held<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such word need ne’er be spoken,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now from me wrung by darkening doom,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As menace-murk of thunder-gloom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere yet the storm hath broken.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“No plainer speech my lips dare frame;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, soothly, had ye seen the same,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Each idle moment would ye blame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That us from flight doth sever,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not loitering o’er what rests to do<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere hence we float up yonder blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Self-exiled from the paths we knew&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For ever and for ever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68">{68}</a></span>”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">I trow that every Fay who heard<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet none lamented, none demurred,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or against his will besought him;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For in his steadfast-mournful eyne<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They could some fatal truth divine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ none might know what boding sign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To stern resolve had wrought him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What vision from that mirror’s breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So filled with fear and wonder.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some say that unto him were shown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Days when round earth, once green and lone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69">{69}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And say he saw or ever he woke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">World weeded o’er from prime to prime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With want, and woe, and care, and crime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That halts such burden under.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Made haste to raze those mansions proud;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To crash of timbers falling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As toppling towers at onslaught rude<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70">{70}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Slipped homeward, warily crawling.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He spied no Elfin doings there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And only heard a rustle<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This was the end of Elfintown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Built with such coil and bustle.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then Oberon spake the word of might<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That set the enchanted cars in sight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But lore I lack to tell aright<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72">{72}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71">{71}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 422px;">
+<a href="images/image072.jpg">
+<img src="images/image072.jpg" width="422" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73">{73}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Where these had waited hidden.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perchance the clear airs round us rolled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In secret cells did them enfold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like evening dew that none behold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till to the sward ’tis slidden.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And who can say what wizardise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And given them power to stoop and rise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">More high than thought hath travelled?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But more of meteor’s luminous mist,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All girt with strands of seven-hued twist<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From rainbow’s verge unravelled.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">’Tis said, and I believe it well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That whoso mounts their magic sell,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Goes, if he list, invisible<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath the broadest noonlight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That virtue comes of Faery-fern,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flame-fronded in the moonlight;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For this holds true&mdash;too true, alas!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The sky that eve was clear as glass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet no man saw the Faeries pass<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where azure pathways glisten;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And true it is&mdash;too true, ay me&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That nevermore on lawn or lea<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall mortal man a Faery see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ long he look and listen.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Only the twilit woods among<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75">{75}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond sky-reaches hollow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still further, fainter up the height,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Receding past the deep-zoned night&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Faint call of Fays who follow:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>)&#160; &#160;  Red-rose mists o’erdrift<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Moth-moon’s glimmering white,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Lit by sheen-silled west<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Barred with fiery bar;<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Fleeting, following swift,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Whither across the night<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Seek we bourne of rest?<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76">{76}</a></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>)&#160; &#160;&#160; &#160;  Afar.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) Vailing crest on crest<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Down the shadowy height,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Earth with shores and seas<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Dropt, a dwindling gleam.<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Dusk, and bowery nest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Dawn, and dells dew-bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">What shall bide of these?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) &#160; &#160; A dream.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; Fled, ah fled, our sight.<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Yea, but thrills of fire<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Throbbed adown yon deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Faint and very far<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Who shall rede aright?<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Say, what wafts us nigher,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Beckoning up the steep?<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77">{77}</a></span><span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) A star.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; List, a star! a star!<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Oh, our goal of light!<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Yet the winged shades sweep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Yet the void looms vast.<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Weary our wild dreams are:<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">When shall cease our flight<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Soft on shores of sleep?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) At last.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 210px;">
+<a href="images/image077.jpg">
+<img src="images/image077.jpg" width="210" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_78" id="page_78">{78}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/end.png" width="80" alt="[Image unavailable.]" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/back.jpg">
+<img src="images/back.jpg" height="500" alt="[The
+image of the book's back cover is unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67883 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The End of Elfintown
+
+Author: Jane Barlow
+
+Illustrator: Laurence Housman
+
+Release Date: April 20, 2022 [eBook #67883]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+             produced from images generously made available by The
+             Internet Archive)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                            [Illustration:
+
+                              THE END OF
+                               ELFINTOWN
+
+                                  BY
+                              JANE BARLOW
+                            ILLUSTRATED BY
+                           LAURENCE HOUSMAN
+
+                                LONDON
+                            MACMILLAN & CO.
+                                 1894]
+
+
+
+
+                           I.--THE BUILDING
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+    Now would that he who knew so well
+    Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,
+    And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,
+    And how their feud was ended,
+    Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,
+    Had writ in gold, as I in lead,
+    For men to learn why Fays be fled,
+    And whitherward they wended.
+
+      It hapt in ages far agone
+    A harmful spell was cast upon
+    That Elfin King, great Oberon,
+    And teen and trouble brought him;
+    And albeit none can track the skill
+    That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,
+    We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will
+    Such perilous mischief wrought him.
+
+    For she by magic showed him clear,
+    In mirroring crystal of her mere,
+    A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year
+    Ere yet its like were builded;
+    But thro’ her might of gramarie
+    She made the Elfin Prince to see
+    The grandest that on earth should be,
+    And most by wealth-wand gilded.
+
+    ’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size
+    For straiter range of Elfin eyes,
+    But else it had its mortal guise,
+    No sight, no stir omitted,
+    With tower and temple, and mart and street,
+    And prison and palace, all complete,
+    And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet
+    That hither thither flitted.
+
+      Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,
+    Admiring more, and more amazed,
+    Till, when the Witch its image razed,
+    Still in his heart it tarried,
+    (A secret that he might not tell),
+    And home unto his woodland dell
+    That city’s vision, like a spell,
+    O’er all his thoughts he carried.
+
+    And since that day he dwelled no more
+    In joyance blithe as theretofore,
+    But sadly aye himself he bore
+    Amid the sunniest shining;
+    Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,
+    Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;
+    He dreamed of rarer things than these,
+    And for their lack was pining.
+
+    From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,
+    From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,
+    He shifted oft his couch withal,
+    Yet still would chide his chamber,
+    And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,
+    And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;
+    The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,
+    And cowslip’s gawds of amber.
+
+      Hence, on his discontents to brood,
+    He sat one eve in sorry mood,
+    While whispering Elves around him stood,
+    And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;
+    When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,
+    He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,
+    Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay
+    Shall build as fair a city.”
+
+    And eagerly at morrow’s light
+    He hasted forth to choose a site,
+    Whereon should now be reared aright
+    Strong walls and storeys stately.
+    He found it soon: an earth-plot bare
+    Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;
+    No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,
+    Which pleased King Oberon greatly.
+
+      “For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen
+    No blade of grass, or glint of green,
+    But pavements ferly smooth and clean;
+    Small fear of footsteps tripping.”
+    Not far away a brook bobbed by:
+    “From thence,” he said, “we may supply
+    Our waterworks; and soothly I
+    Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”
+
+    Then hied him home amain, and shook
+    His drowsy Fays from every nook,
+    And bade them follow with him, and look
+    Where splendour should be springing;
+    And ere the earliest star blinked down
+    Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,
+    The first white pebble of Elfintown
+    He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.
+
+      And now, indeed, industrious days
+    Be risen upon the land of Fays,
+    Where every liege his Lord obeys,
+    And toils beside his neighbour.
+    They plied them late, they plied them soon,
+    In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,
+    Nay, oft the wan light of a moon
+    Swam in to lamp their labour.
+
+    No more round Faery-ring they swept
+    In mazy measures ere they slept;
+    But, silent, to his lair each crept,
+    Limb wearied, sinews aching.
+    No more they couched in campion’s cell,
+    Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;
+    Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,
+    Brief rest from task-work taking.
+
+      Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,
+    Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks
+    To helves of flax-haulm fitted;
+    On business more than one can name
+    From dawn to dusk they went and came;
+    None durst his share refuse for shame,
+    Nor would with sloth be twitted.
+
+    And brutish things, that creep and crawl
+    Stingless and strong, they did enthrall
+    To burdens bear, and pull and haul,
+    Along the highways goaded;
+    There might ye see the Beetle black
+    Come lumbering down the dusty track,
+    With pebble-blocks piled on his back,
+    Or mossy twig-beams loaded.
+
+    And oft they ponderous weights would heap
+    On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,
+    For many a tedious yard must creep,
+    Their drivers by them trudging;
+    Even nimbler Ants they made submit
+    To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,
+    Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,
+    Against the yoke sore grudging.
+
+      Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,
+    The work lagged nowise; day by day
+    New mansions rose in rich array
+    Beside the paven causey;
+    Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,
+    Some built of brick, and some of stone,
+    And roofed with mica slabs that shone,
+    And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.
+
+    But, fairest amongst all these descried,
+    Stood in the middle edified
+    The Palace where the King should bide,
+    Well worthy a royal master;
+    Of whitest graile its walls, or stained
+    With delicate streaks like marble veined,
+    From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,
+    And pure as alabaster.
+
+      I dare not say how many a line
+    It towered aloft, nor words are mine
+    To tell what fancies Faery-fine
+    Did hall and chamber garnish,
+    All carpeted with hand-spun moss,
+    Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,
+    That flooring made of smoother gloss
+    Than e’er had wax or varnish.
+
+      With couch, and stool, and cushion strown
+    Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;
+    Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,
+    For tiger’s skin and panther’s.
+    Their curtains came from spider-looms,
+    Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;
+    Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,
+    From stamens brushed and anthers.
+
+    A midge-flight from the Palace gate,
+    (Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight
+    A Fane they reared that matched in state
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    Famed Athens or Eleusis;
+    Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,
+    Entablature and pediment;
+    In double row tall columns went
+    Around it, as their use is.
+
+    Each from one slab of rush’s pith
+    Hewn, like majestic monolith,
+    The architrave to prop, therewith
+    The massy roof upholding.
+    Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;
+    No Fay but felt a solemn thrill
+    To pace its cloistered twilight still
+    Mysterious glooms enfolding.
+
+      Then from the brook with trenching spade
+    Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,
+    And hemlock pipes that bitter made
+    The water thro’ them tasted;
+    Hence, some fastidious Fays would go
+    With acorn barrels to and fro,
+    Till this the King forbade, lest so
+    Their labour seem but wasted.
+
+      Herein alone his fortune frowned:
+    That in all Fayland was not found
+    The fire-snake, lured from underground
+    As even-dusk grows dimmer;
+    This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose
+    Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,
+    Chained there all night with knot and noose,
+    To make a goodly glimmer.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright by Macmillan & Co. 1894_]
+
+      But who so fain as Oberon,
+    That watched as every morn outshone
+    His peerless city waxing on,
+    While in its growth he gloried?
+    Triumphant joy it gave the King
+    To see each straw-plank scaffolding
+    Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,
+    Wide-windowed, many-storied.
+
+    And ever his stirring Elves amid
+    He walked, and spied on all they did,
+    And toilers praised, and idlers chid,
+    With earnest speech and eager;
+    Till, swift as blades in April-time
+    Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb
+    Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime
+    Keeps but a record meagre.
+
+      And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,
+    Seeing all to such perfection wrought,
+    That Fays might well repose have sought,
+    From toil returned to pleasure.
+    Howbeit, not so their King inclined,
+    For fast as sped the works designed,
+    Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,
+    That wist not bound or measure.
+
+      Oft as from Palace towers he eyed
+    That spacious plain, as oft he sighed
+    To see it planted far and wide
+    With street-rows thick as stubble.
+    Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,
+    Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,
+    That needs must be restored again,
+    Did Elfin labours double.
+
+      Thus, by the malice of the skies,
+    And tasks their King would still devise,
+    The Fays beheld new toils arise
+    To bar their hope of resting;
+    As he who from the strand hath swum,
+    While in his ear the surges hum,
+    Sees evermore to meet him come
+    White flocks of billows cresting.
+
+    Which when at last they clearly knew,
+    Deep discontent upon them grew,
+    Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,
+    Or piled up clay or pebble,
+    Or hoisted load with strain and heft,
+    Or grained a door with fingers deft
+    And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,
+    At heart was half a rebel.
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                           II.--THE COUNCIL
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+    So, after setting of a sun,
+    When all their day’s long coil was done,
+    And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun
+    Beneath the moonbeams trembled,
+    Called to a chosen meeting-place,
+    Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,
+    To talk about their evil case
+    The Elfin folk assembled.
+
+      ’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn
+    To see them fagged and labour-worn,
+    Their dainty garments stained and torn,
+    Forms bowed with weary stooping;
+    Most like a bed of windflowers frail,
+    What time a shower of pelting hail
+    Hath smirched with mould the petals pale
+    And left the bruised stalks drooping.
+
+    And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,
+    Now sighing loud, now moaning low,
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    Among the shivering blossoms, so
+    Among the Elves upstarted
+    A wail of voices small and shrill,
+    That swelled and sank commingled, still
+    Lamenting o’er their present ill
+    Or ancient bliss departed.
+
+      First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue
+    Renowned his Faery feres among,
+    Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,
+    Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:
+    “It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),
+    “To bid you ’ware the direful dread,
+    By gathering glooms and shadows spread,
+    Wherewith our days are darkened.
+
+    “But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er
+    The eyes to blind and feet to snare,
+    That else a path would find and fare
+    From forth its grim embrasure,
+    Behoves us seek from whence they flit,
+    These shades that on our lives have lit,
+    For so, perchance, a way we hit,
+    Back to the beamy azure.
+
+      “Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,
+    Here let us pause and ask ourselves
+    Why this one hews, why that one delves,
+    Finch waking, chafer whirring.
+    What graceless freak of spiteful change
+    Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,
+    Who wont down all the dells to range
+    Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?
+
+    “What joy have ye to cleave the clod,
+    Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,
+    Or down the creaking cart-track plod,
+    Or up the ladder dizzy?
+    Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,
+    This piteous plight declares ye must
+    Lament the charge upon you thrust
+    That makes you bondslaves busy.
+
+    “Where now be flown the mirthful hours
+    Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?
+    Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,
+    Gay sports on greensward airy?
+    Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,
+    Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?
+    Have these things now no more delights
+    For heart of woodland Faery?
+
+      “But if one saith: ‘The King commands
+    This irksome service at our hands,
+    And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,
+    Lest traitorous act accuse him’--
+    To such: The ancient laws (I say),
+    Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,
+    Point duly where we must obey,
+    And where, unblamed, refuse him.
+
+    “Since for this cause we crowned his head:
+    That long as Elfin sports be sped,
+    He still should rule the maze we tread,
+    When every Faery traces
+    On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;
+    Even as the planet lamps that swing
+    In shimmering cirques around _their_ King,
+    Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.
+
+    “Hence, if for us he prove indeed
+    No sun-bright orb our step to lead,
+    But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,
+    That traveller’s foot betrayeth,
+    Shall we our lightsome paths forsake
+    Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,
+    Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,
+    Lured as his false gleam playeth?
+
+    “Yea, of the King I ask: To thee
+    Were given for lieges Faeries free,
+    Or creeping things whose toil we see
+    By niggard Nature spurred on?
+    They twist the thread, they store the grain,
+    And thus, at least, their portion gain;
+    Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain
+    That win nor gift nor guerdon.
+
+      “Yet, furthermore, and haply first
+    In import grave: some spell accurst,
+    Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst
+    Thus in our King sets burning;
+    For I long since have deemed to mark
+    Flash from his eye a fitful spark,
+    Enkindled by those sorceries dark
+    That steal the wits’ discerning.
+
+    “How else should he, who erst had known
+    Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,
+    His dwelling choose of stock and stone,
+    Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?
+    Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought
+    Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught
+    Save folly planned by one distraught
+    With some fantastic whimsy?
+
+      “Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth
+    Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,
+    Or hear it said that I for sloth
+    Mine owed allegiance scanted;
+    But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,
+    I less could brook the Fay-folk still
+    Enslaved to work the warlock’s will
+    Who hath our King enchanted.”
+
+    Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went
+    Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent
+    To words that voice their discontent,
+    Long felt but lowly muttered.
+    And Elfdore from among them next
+    Arose, his gentle spirit vext,
+    And much with jarring griefs perplext,
+    As mournful speech he uttered:
+
+    “Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke
+    Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,
+    And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,
+    And sorer ills that threat them;
+    And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind
+    Those days ere yet our bliss declined--
+    Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,
+    What Elf can once forget them?
+
+    “Your heaviest task to plot some prank,
+    Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;
+    With sun that rose, and sun that sank,
+    No Faery’s gladness vanished.
+    But very vainly lend I speech
+    To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,
+    In few, what dismal tracts we reach,
+    From former weal far-banished:
+
+    “That, when our green-ywimpled wood,
+    Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,
+    Lets vermeil dawn a path make good
+    Where many a dim shade drowseth,
+    No more, as once, its burgeoning light
+    Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,
+    But signal-fire that weary wight
+    To loathëd labour rouseth.
+
+    “And when the West’s curved crystalline
+    Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,
+    Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine
+    The rubied rim was crowning,
+    Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,
+    We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,
+    And leave our cares a little space
+    In dreamless slumber drowning.’
+
+      “Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,
+    In slavish bonds our days are clipped,
+    Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,
+    Blank silence, whither fleeing
+    From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth
+    We respite seek--holds life its worth?
+    What joy were minished on the earth
+    If Faeries ceased from being?
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+      “And not on you alone this yoke
+    Of bondage falls; an humbler folk
+    May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke
+    First tinkled clinking yonder;
+    Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,
+    Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,
+    To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint
+    I oft remorseful ponder.
+
+    “My heart grows hot when yearnings vain
+    Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,
+    For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,
+    Amid their garnered treasure.
+    And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb
+    To hear the unsightly Spider sob,
+    When from her loom the weft we rob,
+    Wove with such pride and pleasure.
+
+    “And still when harnessed Snail or Slug
+    I watch the hated wain-load tug,
+    Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug
+    Hath past me, panting, lumbered,
+    Reproachful twinges wring my mind,
+    For so we twofold burdens bind
+    On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,
+    Unwieldy frames have cumbered.
+
+      “Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,
+    To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,
+    I fare as foot that nettle flees,
+    But which barbed thistle lameth;
+    So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast
+    What time I heard an Elf suggest
+    That Fays should scorn their King’s behest
+    Since overmuch he claimeth.
+
+    “For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,
+    Let Oberon but anon draw nigh
+    With joyful mien and sparkling eye,
+    Our bootless tasks admiring,
+    And, doubting naught of hearers glad,
+    Begin to tell new projects mad--
+    Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,
+    All Elfland’s strength requiring,
+
+    “Then, wistful, pause my face to scan
+    And read approval of his plan
+    Trow, if for very ruth I can
+    There brook him vainly seek it.
+    Nay, if I knew one word whose might
+    Could all his hopes forbid and blight,
+    Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,
+    In truth ’twere hard to speak it.
+
+    “But for the cause that Elfrain deems
+    Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,
+    A Wizard, who our ruin schemes
+    With arts beyond our foiling;
+    So fell a thought I dare not think
+    That leadeth to a misery’s brink,
+    Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink
+    In anguish back recoiling.
+
+      “Our case my counsel mocks. I rede
+    We Elfmel call, and straitly heed
+    The word he speaks; for if, indeed,
+    Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,
+    His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”
+    Then all around rang eager cries:
+    “Let Elfmel speak--let him advise”--
+    And he, at clamour’s loudest,
+    Stood forth upon the beechen stage;
+    Not old, for Faeries know not age,
+    But past his peers reputed sage,
+    Such fame his wit achieveth;
+    True to the mark his winged words went,
+    Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,
+    Yet clear to show their thought’s intent
+    As air that arrow cleaveth:
+
+    “Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,
+    I long have known for truth” (he said);
+    “No mortal guile the snare hath spread
+    Where Oberon lies entangled;
+    Nor lives who thus awry could twitch
+    His sense, or fool to such a pitch,
+    Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.
+    Aye plotting ills new-fangled.
+
+    “And, wot ye well, if aught avail
+    To countercharm her magic’s bale,
+    Whose mischief sore we so bewail,
+    Plunged in this dire quandáry,
+    ’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;
+    One only may her marring mend--
+    The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend
+    Oft proved to folk of Faery.
+
+    “Yet, he who would her pity awake,
+    A perilous path must undertake,
+    For far beside her Lonesome Lake
+    A slumbrous trance hath bound her,
+    Where evermore a silence deep,
+    Like trusty sentinel, must keep
+    Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep
+    That laps its dreams around her.
+
+    “The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;
+    Beyond the next each sound fails lost;
+    The third fends off both fire and frost,
+    How fierce so e’er their noyance;
+    The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;
+    The fifth bars memory and regret;
+    Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,
+    The seventh all hope and joyance.
+
+    “Still may her helpful might be sought,
+    Still may her ruthful heart be raught,
+    Albeit by steps with peril fraught,
+    Down dim paths danger-ridden;
+    Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms
+    Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,
+    That, save for cure of grievous harms,
+    To utter I am forbidden.
+
+    “And erst deemed I that haply soon,
+    As film-flakes floating by the moon
+    Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,
+    And one brief moment dim it,
+    Even so from us our cares might drift
+    Fleeting and fading soft and swift;
+    But nay; their pall shows never a rift,
+    Their shade-sweep never a limit.
+
+    “And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel
+    ’Tis time to her we make appeal
+    For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,
+    And lure him from his madness;
+    And list ye on this mission trust
+    My zeal and truth, her power august
+    Will I beseech, till yield it must
+    A boon to work us gladness.”
+
+      Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops
+    To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,
+    The voice of clustering Elfin groups
+    Rose up, his speech approving;
+    And cried that in such embassage
+    No worthier Elf could e’er engage;
+    And bade him speed the task whose wage
+    Should be their woe’s removing.
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                          III.--THE FLITTING
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+    Hence, when the dawn looked dewiest,
+    Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,
+    Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,
+    While still the King lay dreaming;
+    But--since his se’ennight’s peril dared
+    Were long to tell--he home repaired
+    When Elfintown at sunset flared,
+    With roofs and windows gleaming.
+
+    He came, in sooth, at time of need,
+    Because the King had just decreed
+    A task that should all tasks exceed
+    Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:
+    A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,
+    Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,
+    And even the loftiest plantain-spike
+    Peer in prodigious pride o’er.
+
+    Not empty-handed Elfmel came:
+    A mirror wan in dark-wove frame
+    The Witch had sent, and o’er the same
+    Breathed many a murmur mystic;
+    In size it matched the rain-drop pearled
+    At broadest blade-point; round it curled
+    Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled
+    With sentence Kabalistic.
+
+    The which, if hung ere fall of night
+    Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight
+    Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,
+    Would show him such a vision
+    As must his frenzy scare away:
+    “Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”
+    Quoth she; yet more she would not say,
+    But sped the Elf on his mission.
+
+      This Elfmel did anon relate
+    To his comrades, met in grave debate,
+    Who joyed to learn their evil estate
+    Might now eftsoons be mended.
+    And twain in haste by secret stair
+    To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,
+    What time he bode all unaware
+    Of aught his Elves intended.
+
+      Methinks when dimness round them closed,
+    The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,
+    For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed
+    The drift of night’s pale lily;
+    Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze
+    Whereon the fluttering petal flees,
+    Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease
+    To light and linger stilly.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    Some soft as drowsy finches sung:
+    “Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among
+    To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung
+    Till night star-bright,” they twittered;
+    While others kept a mien more grave,
+    For somewhat still their minds misgave
+    That care so blithe an end should have
+    Which long their lives embittered.
+
+    But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain
+    To see red light the east distain,
+    That Oberon should rouse again
+    From slumbers gramarie-haunted;
+    For then they must behold a sign
+    If verily to that spell benign
+    The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign
+    Had yielded, quelled and daunted.
+
+    And ’mid the mists of morning-tide
+    Thronged to the Palace court they hied;
+    And, lo, the massy door flung wide,
+    And Oberon thro’ it pacing.
+    Sad was his look, as if he grieved
+    Of long-deluding hope bereaved,
+    Or fairest myth, too much believed,
+    Truth-touched with finger effacing.
+
+    Forth paced he to as mute a hush
+    As falls upon the twittering bush
+    Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,
+    Their motley tyrant, coming;
+    For never a Fay durst move, in fear
+    Lest haply so should fail his ear
+    The words he held his breath to hear
+    Above his heart’s thick drumming.
+
+    Nor any sound from earth or sky
+    That silence flawed, save if thereby
+    A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,
+    Stamped foot and tugged at tether;
+    Or shrilled a sharper note than that
+    Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,
+    Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat
+    And twirled lean legs together.
+
+      “Strange tidings unto you I bring,
+    My faithful Fays,” so spake the King
+    “For in this night a wondrous thing
+    Was shown me as I slumbered;
+    A wondrous thing and piteous both,
+    For against itself my heart grows wroth
+    To think how I have abused your troth,
+    And worked you woes unnumbered.
+
+    “Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain
+    No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,
+    To trace these tracks of labour vain,
+    This witless work to gaze on;
+    Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks
+    Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,
+    As if all round on boards and blocks
+    I read my folly’s blazon.
+
+    “Yet bitterer far to feel the while
+    That every huge-erected pile
+    Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile
+    From Elfin race exacted.
+    And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?
+    Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?
+    Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief
+    Of mind with charms distracted.
+
+      “And now the night-sent sign, that snaps
+    This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps
+    Wherein Fate hid our future haps,
+    And me its portent teacheth
+    ’Tis fit that yet one further task
+    I of your tried allegiance ask--
+    I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask
+    That here your aid beseecheth:
+
+    “I charge you that forthright ye haste
+    To lay this cursëd city waste;
+    Let wall be breached, and site erased,
+    Pluck down both roof and rafter;
+    Leave not a stone on stone to stand;
+    Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!
+    Of Faery folk such toils demand
+    In all the ages after.”
+
+      Thereat uprose a jubilant shout
+    From all who hearkened round about,
+    For so they knew beyond a doubt
+    King Oberon’s craze departed.
+    “Swift be the King’s command obeyed,
+    Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,
+    Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,
+    Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”
+
+      But Oberon, still of mien deject,
+    Their strain exultant heard and checked
+    With lifted palm and pale aspect,
+    That motioned silence thro’ them.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    “Not so,” spake he in accents grave,
+    “No more for us the deep woods wave,
+    Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,
+    Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;
+
+    “Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,
+    Down yon cool shades all care to flee,
+    And very fain would watch your glee
+    Wax as in good days golden--
+    For, lo, the dream, whose power undid
+    That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,
+    Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,
+    So fair a hope withholden.
+
+      “Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,
+    When Earthland first felt Elfin tread--
+    But whence, or how, or why we sped,
+    I wot our wisest knows not--
+    The Fate who did our journeyings guide
+    Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,
+    This ball must aye our dwelling bide,
+    A prison whose doors unclose not.
+
+    “That weird-night’s vision warns me so--
+    Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,
+    Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,
+    Long since to me confiding
+    The word whereby, if need befal,
+    Aërial chariots I may call,
+    Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all
+    Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.
+
+      “Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,
+    So dear our haunts by flood and feld,
+    That evermore I hoped and held
+    Such word need ne’er be spoken,
+    Now from me wrung by darkening doom,
+    As menace-murk of thunder-gloom
+    Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom
+    Ere yet the storm hath broken.
+
+    “No plainer speech my lips dare frame;
+    But, soothly, had ye seen the same,
+    Each idle moment would ye blame
+    That us from flight doth sever,
+    Not loitering o’er what rests to do
+    Ere hence we float up yonder blue,
+    Self-exiled from the paths we knew--
+    For ever and for ever.”
+
+      I trow that every Fay who heard
+    Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,
+    Yet none lamented, none demurred,
+    Or against his will besought him;
+    For in his steadfast-mournful eyne
+    They could some fatal truth divine,
+    Tho’ none might know what boding sign
+    To stern resolve had wrought him.
+
+    And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t
+    What vision from that mirror’s breast
+    Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,
+    So filled with fear and wonder.
+    Some say that unto him were shown
+    Days when round earth, once green and lone,
+    Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,
+    No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;
+    And say he saw or ever he woke
+    High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,
+    Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke
+    Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;
+    World weeded o’er from prime to prime
+    With want, and woe, and care, and crime,
+    Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,
+    That halts such burden under.
+
+      Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd
+    Made haste to raze those mansions proud;
+    Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud
+    To crash of timbers falling,
+    As toppling towers at onslaught rude
+    Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed
+    Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd
+    Slipped homeward, warily crawling.
+
+    Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare
+    Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,
+    He spied no Elfin doings there,
+    And only heard a rustle
+    Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown
+    Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.
+    This was the end of Elfintown,
+    Built with such coil and bustle.
+
+      Then Oberon spake the word of might
+    That set the enchanted cars in sight;
+    But lore I lack to tell aright
+
+[Illustration:
+
+_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
+
+    Where these had waited hidden.
+    Perchance the clear airs round us rolled
+    In secret cells did them enfold,
+    Like evening dew that none behold
+    Till to the sward ’tis slidden.
+
+    And who can say what wizardise
+    Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,
+    And given them power to stoop and rise
+    More high than thought hath travelled?
+    Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,
+    But more of meteor’s luminous mist,
+    All girt with strands of seven-hued twist
+    From rainbow’s verge unravelled.
+
+    ’Tis said, and I believe it well,
+    That whoso mounts their magic sell,
+    Goes, if he list, invisible
+    Beneath the broadest noonlight;
+    That virtue comes of Faery-fern,
+    Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn
+    Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn
+    Flame-fronded in the moonlight;
+
+    For this holds true--too true, alas!--
+    The sky that eve was clear as glass,
+    Yet no man saw the Faeries pass
+    Where azure pathways glisten;
+    And true it is--too true, ay me--
+    That nevermore on lawn or lea
+    Shall mortal man a Faery see,
+    Tho’ long he look and listen.
+
+    Only the twilit woods among
+    A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung
+    Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung
+    Beyond sky-reaches hollow;
+    Still further, fainter up the height,
+    Receding past the deep-zoned night--
+    Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,
+    Faint call of Fays who follow:
+
+    (_Fays following._)   Red-rose mists o’erdrift
+                        Moth-moon’s glimmering white,
+                        Lit by sheen-silled west
+                        Barred with fiery bar;
+                        Fleeting, following swift,
+                        Whither across the night
+                        Seek we bourne of rest?
+    (_Fays leading._)    Afar.
+
+    (_Fays following._) Vailing crest on crest
+                        Down the shadowy height,
+                        Earth with shores and seas
+                        Dropt, a dwindling gleam.
+                        Dusk, and bowery nest,
+                        Dawn, and dells dew-bright,
+                        What shall bide of these?
+    (_Fays leading._)    A dream.
+
+    (_Fays following._)  Fled, ah fled, our sight.
+                        Yea, but thrills of fire
+                        Throbbed adown yon deep,
+                        Faint and very far
+                        Who shall rede aright?
+                        Say, what wafts us nigher,
+                        Beckoning up the steep?
+    (_Fays leading._)    A star.
+
+    (_Fays following._)  List, a star! a star!
+                        Oh, our goal of light!
+                        Yet the winged shades sweep,
+                        Yet the void looms vast.
+                        Weary our wild dreams are:
+                        When shall cease our flight
+                        Soft on shores of sleep?
+    (_Fays leading._)     At last.
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***
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+  <head>  <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover" />
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+<title>
+  The Project Gutenberg eBook of The
+End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow.
+</title>
+<style type="text/css">
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+<body>
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The End of Elfintown</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Jane Barlow</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Laurence Housman</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 20, 2022 [eBook #67883]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/cover.jpg">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" height="500" alt="[The
+image of the book's cover is unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<table cellpadding="0">
+<tr><td class="c" colspan="3"><b>CONTENTS</b></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r"><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">I.</a></td><td><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">&mdash;THE BUILDING</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r"><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">II.</a></td><td><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">&mdash;THE COUNCIL</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r"><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">III.</a></td><td><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">&mdash;THE FLITTING</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;">
+<a href="images/titlepage.jpg">
+<img src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<h1>THE END OF<br />
+ELFINTOWN</h1>
+
+<p class="c"><small>BY</small><br />
+JANE BARLOW<br />
+<small>ILLUSTRATED BY</small><br />
+LAURENCE HOUSMAN<br /><br />
+LONDON<br />
+MACMILLAN &amp; CO.<br />
+1894
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1">{1}</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="I_THE_BUILDING" id="I_THE_BUILDING"></a></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 316px;">
+<a href="images/image001.jpg">
+<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="316" height="400" alt="I.&mdash;THE BUILDING" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Now</span> would that he who knew so well<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And how their feud was ended,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2">{2}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had writ in gold, as I in lead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For men to learn why Fays be fled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And whitherward they wended.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">It hapt in ages far agone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A harmful spell was cast upon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Elfin King, great Oberon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And teen and trouble brought him;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And albeit none can track the skill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such perilous mischief wrought him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For she by magic showed him clear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In mirroring crystal of her mere,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3">{3}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere yet its like were builded;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But thro’ her might of gramarie<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She made the Elfin Prince to see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The grandest that on earth should be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And most by wealth-wand gilded.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For straiter range of Elfin eyes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But else it had its mortal guise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sight, no stir omitted,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With tower and temple, and mart and street,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And prison and palace, all complete,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That hither thither flitted.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4">{4}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Admiring more, and more amazed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till, when the Witch its image razed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still in his heart it tarried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(A secret that he might not tell),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And home unto his woodland dell<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That city’s vision, like a spell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O’er all his thoughts he carried.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And since that day he dwelled no more<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In joyance blithe as theretofore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But sadly aye himself he bore<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Amid the sunniest shining;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He dreamed of rarer things than these,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And for their lack was pining.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5">{5}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He shifted oft his couch withal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet still would chide his chamber,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cowslip’s gawds of amber.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Hence, on his discontents to brood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He sat one eve in sorry mood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While whispering Elves around him stood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6">{6}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall build as fair a city.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And eagerly at morrow’s light<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He hasted forth to choose a site,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whereon should now be reared aright<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Strong walls and storeys stately.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He found it soon: an earth-plot bare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which pleased King Oberon greatly.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No blade of grass, or glint of green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But pavements ferly smooth and clean;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Small fear of footsteps tripping.”<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not far away a brook bobbed by:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7">{7}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“From thence,” he said, “we may supply<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our waterworks; and soothly I<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then hied him home amain, and shook<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His drowsy Fays from every nook,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bade them follow with him, and look<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where splendour should be springing;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And ere the earliest star blinked down<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The first white pebble of Elfintown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">And now, indeed, industrious days<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be risen upon the land of Fays,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where every liege his Lord obeys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8">{8}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And toils beside his neighbour.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They plied them late, they plied them soon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, oft the wan light of a moon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Swam in to lamp their labour.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No more round Faery-ring they swept<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In mazy measures ere they slept;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, silent, to his lair each crept,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Limb wearied, sinews aching.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No more they couched in campion’s cell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Brief rest from task-work taking.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9">{9}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;">
+<a href="images/image009.jpg">
+<img src="images/image009.jpg" width="423" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10">{10}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11">{11}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To helves of flax-haulm fitted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On business more than one can name<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From dawn to dusk they went and came;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">None durst his share refuse for shame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor would with sloth be twitted.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And brutish things, that creep and crawl<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stingless and strong, they did enthrall<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To burdens bear, and pull and haul,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Along the highways goaded;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There might ye see the Beetle black<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come lumbering down the dusty track,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With pebble-blocks piled on his back,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or mossy twig-beams loaded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12">{12}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And oft they ponderous weights would heap<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For many a tedious yard must creep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their drivers by them trudging;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even nimbler Ants they made submit<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Against the yoke sore grudging.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The work lagged nowise; day by day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">New mansions rose in rich array<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beside the paven causey;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some built of brick, and some of stone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And roofed with mica slabs that shone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13">{13}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But, fairest amongst all these descried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stood in the middle edified<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Palace where the King should bide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Well worthy a royal master;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of whitest graile its walls, or stained<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With delicate streaks like marble veined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And pure as alabaster.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">I dare not say how many a line<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It towered aloft, nor words are mine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To tell what fancies Faery-fine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Did hall and chamber garnish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All carpeted with hand-spun moss,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That flooring made of smoother gloss<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than e’er had wax or varnish.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">With couch, and stool, and cushion strown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For tiger’s skin and panther’s.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their curtains came from spider-looms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From stamens brushed and anthers.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A midge-flight from the Palace gate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Fane they reared that matched in state<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15">{15}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">
+<a href="images/image015.jpg">
+<img src="images/image015.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16">{16}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17">{17}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Famed Athens or Eleusis;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Entablature and pediment;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In double row tall columns went<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Around it, as their use is.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Each from one slab of rush’s pith<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hewn, like majestic monolith,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The architrave to prop, therewith<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The massy roof upholding.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No Fay but felt a solemn thrill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To pace its cloistered twilight still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mysterious glooms enfolding.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then from the brook with trenching spade<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18">{18}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hemlock pipes that bitter made<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The water thro’ them tasted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hence, some fastidious Fays would go<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With acorn barrels to and fro,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till this the King forbade, lest so<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their labour seem but wasted.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Herein alone his fortune frowned:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That in all Fayland was not found<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fire-snake, lured from underground<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As even-dusk grows dimmer;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Chained there all night with knot and noose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To make a goodly glimmer.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20">{20}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19">{19}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<a href="images/image020.jpg">
+<img src="images/image020.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright by Macmillan &amp; Co. 1894</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21">{21}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">But who so fain as Oberon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That watched as every morn outshone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His peerless city waxing on,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While in its growth he gloried?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Triumphant joy it gave the King<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see each straw-plank scaffolding<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wide-windowed, many-storied.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ever his stirring Elves amid<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He walked, and spied on all they did,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And toilers praised, and idlers chid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With earnest speech and eager;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till, swift as blades in April-time<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Keeps but a record meagre.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seeing all to such perfection wrought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Fays might well repose have sought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From toil returned to pleasure.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Howbeit, not so their King inclined,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For fast as sped the works designed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That wist not bound or measure.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Oft as from Palace towers he eyed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That spacious plain, as oft he sighed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see it planted far and wide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With street-rows thick as stubble.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That needs must be restored again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23">{23}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Did Elfin labours double.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Thus, by the malice of the skies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And tasks their King would still devise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Fays beheld new toils arise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bar their hope of resting;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he who from the strand hath swum,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While in his ear the surges hum,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sees evermore to meet him come<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">White flocks of billows cresting.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Which when at last they clearly knew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep discontent upon them grew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or piled up clay or pebble,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hoisted load with strain and heft,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or grained a door with fingers deft<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24">{24}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At heart was half a rebel.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 216px;">
+<a href="images/image024.jpg">
+<img src="images/image024.jpg" width="216" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25">{25}</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="II_THE_COUNCIL" id="II_THE_COUNCIL"></a></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">
+<a href="images/image025.jpg">
+<img src="images/image025.jpg" width="258" height="400" alt="II.&mdash;THE COUNCIL" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">So</span>, after setting of a sun,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When all their day’s long coil was done,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26">{26}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath the moonbeams trembled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Called to a chosen meeting-place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To talk about their evil case<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Elfin folk assembled.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see them fagged and labour-worn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their dainty garments stained and torn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forms bowed with weary stooping;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Most like a bed of windflowers frail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What time a shower of pelting hail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath smirched with mould the petals pale<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And left the bruised stalks drooping.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now sighing loud, now moaning low,<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28">{28}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27">{27}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;">
+<a href="images/image028.jpg">
+<img src="images/image028.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29">{29}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Among the shivering blossoms, so<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Among the Elves upstarted<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wail of voices small and shrill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That swelled and sank commingled, still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lamenting o’er their present ill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or ancient bliss departed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Renowned his Faery feres among,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“To bid you ’ware the direful dread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By gathering glooms and shadows spread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherewith our days are darkened.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The eyes to blind and feet to snare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That else a path would find and fare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From forth its grim embrasure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Behoves us seek from whence they flit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">These shades that on our lives have lit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For so, perchance, a way we hit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Back to the beamy azure.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here let us pause and ask ourselves<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why this one hews, why that one delves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Finch waking, chafer whirring.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What graceless freak of spiteful change<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who wont down all the dells to range<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31">{31}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“What joy have ye to cleave the clod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or down the creaking cart-track plod,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or up the ladder dizzy?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This piteous plight declares ye must<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lament the charge upon you thrust<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That makes you bondslaves busy.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Where now be flown the mirthful hours<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gay sports on greensward airy?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Have these things now no more delights<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32">{32}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For heart of woodland Faery?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“But if one saith: ‘The King commands<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This irksome service at our hands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest traitorous act accuse him’&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To such: The ancient laws (I say),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Point duly where we must obey,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And where, unblamed, refuse him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Since for this cause we crowned his head:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That long as Elfin sports be sped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He still should rule the maze we tread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When every Faery traces<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even as the planet lamps that swing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33">{33}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In shimmering cirques around <i>their</i> King,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Hence, if for us he prove indeed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No sun-bright orb our step to lead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That traveller’s foot betrayeth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall we our lightsome paths forsake<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lured as his false gleam playeth?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yea, of the King I ask: To thee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were given for lieges Faeries free,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or creeping things whose toil we see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By niggard Nature spurred on?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34">{34}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They twist the thread, they store the grain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And thus, at least, their portion gain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That win nor gift nor guerdon.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Yet, furthermore, and haply first<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In import grave: some spell accurst,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thus in our King sets burning;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I long since have deemed to mark<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flash from his eye a fitful spark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enkindled by those sorceries dark<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That steal the wits’ discerning.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“How else should he, who erst had known<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His dwelling choose of stock and stone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35">{35}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Save folly planned by one distraught<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With some fantastic whimsy?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hear it said that I for sloth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mine owed allegiance scanted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I less could brook the Fay-folk still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enslaved to work the warlock’s will<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who hath our King enchanted.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To words that voice their discontent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Long felt but lowly muttered.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Elfdore from among them next<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Arose, his gentle spirit vext,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And much with jarring griefs perplext,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As mournful speech he uttered:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sorer ills that threat them;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Those days ere yet our bliss declined&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What Elf can once forget them?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Your heaviest task to plot some prank,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With sun that rose, and sun that sank,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No Faery’s gladness vanished.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But very vainly lend I speech<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In few, what dismal tracts we reach,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From former weal far-banished:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“That, when our green-ywimpled wood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lets vermeil dawn a path make good<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where many a dim shade drowseth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No more, as once, its burgeoning light<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But signal-fire that weary wight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To loathëd labour rouseth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And when the West’s curved crystalline<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The rubied rim was crowning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And leave our cares a little space<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In dreamless slumber drowning.’<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In slavish bonds our days are clipped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Blank silence, whither fleeing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We respite seek&mdash;holds life its worth?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What joy were minished on the earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If Faeries ceased from being?<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;">
+<a href="images/image039.jpg">
+<img src="images/image039.jpg" width="432" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40">{40}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41">{41}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“And not on you alone this yoke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of bondage falls; an humbler folk<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">First tinkled clinking yonder;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I oft remorseful ponder.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“My heart grows hot when yearnings vain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Amid their garnered treasure.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To hear the unsightly Spider sob,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When from her loom the weft we rob,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wove with such pride and pleasure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42">{42}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And still when harnessed Snail or Slug<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I watch the hated wain-load tug,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath past me, panting, lumbered,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Reproachful twinges wring my mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For so we twofold burdens bind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unwieldy frames have cumbered.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I fare as foot that nettle flees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But which barbed thistle lameth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What time I heard an Elf suggest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Fays should scorn their King’s behest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since overmuch he claimeth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let Oberon but anon draw nigh<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With joyful mien and sparkling eye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our bootless tasks admiring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, doubting naught of hearers glad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Begin to tell new projects mad&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All Elfland’s strength requiring,<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Then, wistful, pause my face to scan<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And read approval of his plan<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Trow, if for very ruth I can<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There brook him vainly seek it.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, if I knew one word whose might<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Could all his hopes forbid and blight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In truth ’twere hard to speak it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44">{44}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But for the cause that Elfrain deems<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Wizard, who our ruin schemes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With arts beyond our foiling;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So fell a thought I dare not think<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That leadeth to a misery’s brink,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In anguish back recoiling.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Our case my counsel mocks. I rede<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We Elfmel call, and straitly heed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The word he speaks; for if, indeed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then all around rang eager cries:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Let Elfmel speak&mdash;let him advise”&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he, at clamour’s loudest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45">{45}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stood forth upon the beechen stage;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not old, for Faeries know not age,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But past his peers reputed sage,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such fame his wit achieveth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">True to the mark his winged words went,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet clear to show their thought’s intent<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As air that arrow cleaveth:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I long have known for truth” (he said);<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“No mortal guile the snare hath spread<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where Oberon lies entangled;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor lives who thus awry could twitch<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His sense, or fool to such a pitch,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Aye plotting ills new-fangled.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And, wot ye well, if aught avail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To countercharm her magic’s bale,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose mischief sore we so bewail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Plunged in this dire quandáry,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One only may her marring mend&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oft proved to folk of Faery.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yet, he who would her pity awake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A perilous path must undertake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For far beside her Lonesome Lake<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A slumbrous trance hath bound her,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where evermore a silence deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like trusty sentinel, must keep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That laps its dreams around her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47">{47}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond the next each sound fails lost;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The third fends off both fire and frost,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How fierce so e’er their noyance;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fifth bars memory and regret;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The seventh all hope and joyance.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Still may her helpful might be sought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still may her ruthful heart be raught,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Albeit by steps with peril fraught,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Down dim paths danger-ridden;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That, save for cure of grievous harms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To utter I am forbidden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48">{48}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And erst deemed I that haply soon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As film-flakes floating by the moon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And one brief moment dim it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Even so from us our cares might drift<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fleeting and fading soft and swift;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But nay; their pall shows never a rift,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their shade-sweep never a limit.<br /></span>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">’Tis time to her we make appeal<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And lure him from his madness;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And list ye on this mission trust<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My zeal and truth, her power august<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will I beseech, till yield it must<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A boon to work us gladness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49">{49}</a></span>”<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 213px;">
+<a href="images/image049.jpg">
+<img src="images/image049.jpg" width="213" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The voice of clustering Elfin groups<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rose up, his speech approving;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And cried that in such embassage<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No worthier Elf could e’er engage;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bade him speed the task whose wage<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should be their woe’s removing.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50">{50}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51">{51}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<h2><a name="III_THE_FLITTING" id="III_THE_FLITTING"></a></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 283px;">
+<a href="images/image051.jpg">
+<img src="images/image051.jpg" width="283" height="400" alt="III.&mdash;THE FLITTING" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hence</span>, when the dawn looked dewiest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52">{52}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While still the King lay dreaming;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But&mdash;since his se’ennight’s peril dared<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were long to tell&mdash;he home repaired<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When Elfintown at sunset flared,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With roofs and windows gleaming.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He came, in sooth, at time of need,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because the King had just decreed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A task that should all tasks exceed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And even the loftiest plantain-spike<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Peer in prodigious pride o’er.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Not empty-handed Elfmel came:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A mirror wan in dark-wove frame<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53">{53}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Witch had sent, and o’er the same<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Breathed many a murmur mystic;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In size it matched the rain-drop pearled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At broadest blade-point; round it curled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With sentence Kabalistic.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The which, if hung ere fall of night<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would show him such a vision<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As must his frenzy scare away:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Quoth she; yet more she would not say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But sped the Elf on his mission.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">This Elfmel did anon relate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54">{54}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To his comrades, met in grave debate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who joyed to learn their evil estate<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Might now eftsoons be mended.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And twain in haste by secret stair<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What time he bode all unaware<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of aught his Elves intended.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Methinks when dimness round them closed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The drift of night’s pale lily;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whereon the fluttering petal flees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To light and linger stilly.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55">{55}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<a href="images/image055.jpg">
+<img src="images/image055.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56">{56}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57">{57}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Some soft as drowsy finches sung:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till night star-bright,” they twittered;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While others kept a mien more grave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For somewhat still their minds misgave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That care so blithe an end should have<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which long their lives embittered.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To see red light the east distain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That Oberon should rouse again<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From slumbers gramarie-haunted;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For then they must behold a sign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If verily to that spell benign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had yielded, quelled and daunted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58">{58}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ’mid the mists of morning-tide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thronged to the Palace court they hied;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, lo, the massy door flung wide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Oberon thro’ it pacing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sad was his look, as if he grieved<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of long-deluding hope bereaved,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or fairest myth, too much believed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Truth-touched with finger effacing.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Forth paced he to as mute a hush<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As falls upon the twittering bush<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their motley tyrant, coming;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For never a Fay durst move, in fear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest haply so should fail his ear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The words he held his breath to hear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Above his heart’s thick drumming.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59">{59}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nor any sound from earth or sky<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That silence flawed, save if thereby<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stamped foot and tugged at tether;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or shrilled a sharper note than that<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And twirled lean legs together.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Strange tidings unto you I bring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My faithful Fays,” so spake the King<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“For in this night a wondrous thing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was shown me as I slumbered;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wondrous thing and piteous both,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For against itself my heart grows wroth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To think how I have abused your troth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And worked you woes unnumbered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60">{60}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To trace these tracks of labour vain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This witless work to gaze on;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As if all round on boards and blocks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I read my folly’s blazon.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Yet bitterer far to feel the while<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That every huge-erected pile<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From Elfin race exacted.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of mind with charms distracted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61">{61}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“And now the night-sent sign, that snaps<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherein Fate hid our future haps,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And me its portent teacheth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">’Tis fit that yet one further task<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I of your tried allegiance ask&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That here your aid beseecheth:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“I charge you that forthright ye haste<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To lay this cursëd city waste;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let wall be breached, and site erased,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pluck down both roof and rafter;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave not a stone on stone to stand;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Faery folk such toils demand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In all the ages after.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Thereat uprose a jubilant shout<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From all who hearkened round about,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For so they knew beyond a doubt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">King Oberon’s craze departed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“Swift be the King’s command obeyed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">But Oberon, still of mien deject,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their strain exultant heard and checked<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With lifted palm and pale aspect,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That motioned silence thro’ them.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63">{63}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">
+<a href="images/image063.jpg">
+<img src="images/image063.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64">{64}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65">{65}</a></span>&#160; </p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Not so,” spake he in accents grave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">“No more for us the deep woods wave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Down yon cool shades all care to flee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And very fain would watch your glee<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wax as in good days golden&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For, lo, the dream, whose power undid<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So fair a hope withholden.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66">{66}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When Earthland first felt Elfin tread&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But whence, or how, or why we sped,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I wot our wisest knows not&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Fate who did our journeyings guide<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This ball must aye our dwelling bide,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A prison whose doors unclose not.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“That weird-night’s vision warns me so&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Long since to me confiding<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The word whereby, if need befal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Aërial chariots I may call,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67">{67}</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">“Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So dear our haunts by flood and feld,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That evermore I hoped and held<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Such word need ne’er be spoken,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now from me wrung by darkening doom,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As menace-murk of thunder-gloom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere yet the storm hath broken.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“No plainer speech my lips dare frame;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, soothly, had ye seen the same,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Each idle moment would ye blame<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That us from flight doth sever,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not loitering o’er what rests to do<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere hence we float up yonder blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Self-exiled from the paths we knew&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For ever and for ever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68">{68}</a></span>”<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">I trow that every Fay who heard<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet none lamented, none demurred,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or against his will besought him;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For in his steadfast-mournful eyne<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They could some fatal truth divine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ none might know what boding sign<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To stern resolve had wrought him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What vision from that mirror’s breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So filled with fear and wonder.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some say that unto him were shown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Days when round earth, once green and lone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69">{69}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And say he saw or ever he woke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">World weeded o’er from prime to prime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With want, and woe, and care, and crime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That halts such burden under.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Made haste to raze those mansions proud;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To crash of timbers falling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As toppling towers at onslaught rude<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70">{70}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Slipped homeward, warily crawling.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He spied no Elfin doings there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And only heard a rustle<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This was the end of Elfintown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Built with such coil and bustle.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then Oberon spake the word of might<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That set the enchanted cars in sight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But lore I lack to tell aright<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72">{72}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71">{71}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 422px;">
+<a href="images/image072.jpg">
+<img src="images/image072.jpg" width="422" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+<div class="caption">
+
+<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73">{73}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Where these had waited hidden.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perchance the clear airs round us rolled<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In secret cells did them enfold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like evening dew that none behold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till to the sward ’tis slidden.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And who can say what wizardise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And given them power to stoop and rise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">More high than thought hath travelled?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But more of meteor’s luminous mist,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All girt with strands of seven-hued twist<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From rainbow’s verge unravelled.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">’Tis said, and I believe it well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That whoso mounts their magic sell,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Goes, if he list, invisible<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath the broadest noonlight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That virtue comes of Faery-fern,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flame-fronded in the moonlight;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For this holds true&mdash;too true, alas!&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The sky that eve was clear as glass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet no man saw the Faeries pass<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where azure pathways glisten;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And true it is&mdash;too true, ay me&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That nevermore on lawn or lea<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall mortal man a Faery see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ long he look and listen.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Only the twilit woods among<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75">{75}</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond sky-reaches hollow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Still further, fainter up the height,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Receding past the deep-zoned night&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Faint call of Fays who follow:<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>)&#160; &#160;  Red-rose mists o’erdrift<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Moth-moon’s glimmering white,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Lit by sheen-silled west<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Barred with fiery bar;<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Fleeting, following swift,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Whither across the night<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Seek we bourne of rest?<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76">{76}</a></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>)&#160; &#160;&#160; &#160;  Afar.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) Vailing crest on crest<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Down the shadowy height,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Earth with shores and seas<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Dropt, a dwindling gleam.<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Dusk, and bowery nest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Dawn, and dells dew-bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">What shall bide of these?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) &#160; &#160; A dream.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; Fled, ah fled, our sight.<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Yea, but thrills of fire<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Throbbed adown yon deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Faint and very far<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Who shall rede aright?<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Say, what wafts us nigher,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Beckoning up the steep?<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77">{77}</a></span><span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) A star.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; List, a star! a star!<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Oh, our goal of light!<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Yet the winged shades sweep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Yet the void looms vast.<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Weary our wild dreams are:<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">When shall cease our flight<br /></span>
+<span class="i20">Soft on shores of sleep?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) At last.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 210px;">
+<a href="images/image077.jpg">
+<img src="images/image077.jpg" width="210" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
+</div>
+
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