‘I found her with a pallid cheek, and with a drooping head; I left her, and the summer rose wears not a gladder red. And she murmur’d something like the tones a lute has in its chords; So very sweet the whisper was, I have forgot the words.’ ‘A health to thee, my lady love, a health in Spanish wine, To-night I’ll pledge no other health, I’ll name no name but thine.’ The young page hid his laugh, then dropp’d in rev’rence on his knee: ‘In sooth, good master, that I think to-night may scarcely be. ‘While kneeling at your lady’s feet another dame passed by, The lion in her haughty step, the eagle in her eye: “And doth the good knight barter gems? God’s truth, we’ll do the same,” A pleasant meaning lit the smile that to her proud eyes came. ‘She took the fairest of the gems upon her glittering hand, With her own fingers fasten’d it upon a silken band, And held it to the lamp, then said: “Like this stone’s spotless flame So tell your master that I hold his high and knightly fame.”’ Low on his bended knee the knight received that precious stone, And bold and proud the spirit now that in his dark eyes shone: ‘Up from your sleep, my mariners, for ere the break of day, And even now the stars are pale, I must be miles away.’ The spray fell from the oars in showers, as in some fairy hall They say in melting diamonds the charmèd fountains fall; And though, as set the weary stars, the darker grew the night, Yet far behind the vessel left a track of silver light. They saw again that self-same shore which they that morn had pass’d, On which they look’d as those who know such look may be the last-- Then out he spoke, the helmsman old: ‘I marvel we should go, Just like a lady’s messenger, on the same path to and fro.’ ‘And ’tis to see a lady’s face this homeward task we ply. I wot the proudest of us all were proud to catch her eye. A royal gift our queen hath sent, and it were sore disgrace If that I first put on her gem, and not before her face!’ On the terrace by the river-side there stood a gallant band, The very flower of knight and dame were there of English land; The morning wind toss’d ostrich plume, and stirr’d the silken train, The morning light from gold and gem was mirror’d back again. There walk’d the Queen Elizabeth; you knew her from the rest More by the royal step and eye than by the royal vest; There flashed, though now the step was staid, the falcon eye was still, The fiery blood of Lancaster, the haughty Tudor’s will. A lady by the balustrade, a little way apart, Lean’d languidly, indulging in the solitude of heart Which is Love’s empire tenanted by visions of his own-- Such solitude is soon disturb’d, such visions soon are flown.