_He blew three blasts upon his horn;
His men did make reply,
And came all quickly to his call,
Through brake and brier so high._

_And every man who saw her there
Went down upon his knee;
Behind her came Earl Roderick,
All pitiful to see._

_And in his trembling hand the helm
From his uncovered brow;
And "Oh," he said, "to love her well,
And know it only now!"_

_So he did walk while she did ride
Through all the town away,
For greater than Earl Roderick
She did become that day._

Now have I said how the heart of the Black Earl woke to love, and then was
humbled, as the ancient crone had foretold; but of his sorrowful years,
his desperate danger of eternal loss and his after-salvation, must I
likewise tell, if the story would be pitiful in the ending.

Therefore shall I lay my harp aside, and so go back in my telling.

And I bid thee remember how the little pale bride was wont to sit upon the
mountain and watch the far lights in her father's home quench themselves