Bound the huge blocks together, and he made A city, with a rampart like a hill Encircling it, and towers that threw a shade Longer than any mountain's on the plain. Deep in the highest and the strongest tower, Cain was enclosed. "Can the eye see you now?" His children asked him. "Yes, it is fixed on me," He answered. And with haggard face he crept Out of the tower, and cried unto his sons, "I will go down into the earth, and live Alone, within a dark and silent tomb. No one shall ever see my face again, And I will never look at anything." They made a vaulted tomb beneath the earth, And he was lowered into it; the hole Above his head was closed; but in the tomb Cain saw the eye still sternly fixed on him. _Eviradnus_ When John the Striker, lord of Lusace, died, Leaving his kingdom to his gentle niece, Mahaud, great joy there was in all the land; For she was beautiful, and sweet and young, Kind to the people, and beloved by them. But Sigismund, the German emperor, And Ladislas of Poland were not glad. Long had they coveted the wide domains Of John the Striker; and Eviradnus, The tall, white-haired Alastian warrior, Home from his battles in the Holy Land, Heard, as he wandered through the castle grounds, Strange talk between two strangers--a lute-player And troubadour--who with their minstrelsy Had charmed the lovely lady of Lusace. And she was taking them with her that night To Corbus Castle--an old ruined keep From which her race was sprung. Ere she was crowned, An ancient custom of the land required Mahaud to pass the night in solitude At Corbus, where her ancestors reposed, Amid the silence of the wooded hills On which the stronghold stands. Being afraid Of the ordeal, Mahaud took with her The two strange minstrels, so that they might make Music and mirth until she fell asleep. An old priest, cunning in the use of herbs, Came with her to the border of the wood, And gave her a mysterious wine to drink To make her slumber till the break of day, When all the people of Lusace would come And wake her with their shouts, and lead her forth To the cathedral where she would be crowned. * * * * *