He mounted the marble stairs to her chamber to seek her there, but only
found a sewing-maid, pale and deadly faint.

"Oh, sharp sorrow," quoth she, "from what I have seen this night, Mary
protect me! A white ghost have I seen--evil it may bring to me--a white
ghost with dim eyes of the dead!"

"Whither went she?" said the Black Earl, angry in his need.

"Into thy chamber, great Earl!" cried the maid; "I saw her at thy bed-head
weeping piteously."

"It was thy lady," quoth the Earl; "lead me her way, and stop thy
lamentation."

"My grief!" the girl said, "her way I know not; when I, deeming her my
mistress, reached her side, she was no more. It is an evil day that cometh
upon us."

Now, when the proud Roderick saw the girl so full of fear, he chid her
cruelly and bade her go. Yet when she had left him he felt a strange and
unwonted coldness settle upon his heart.

The anger against his young bride was quenched, and a dewlike fear grew
upon him. But of what befell him I shall now sing to thee, lest thou grow
weary of my prose:

_All silent Black Earl Roderick
Went to his room away,
Full angry, with his throbbing heart