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<h2 id="ALONZO_THE_BRAVE_AND_THE_FAIR_IMOGENE">ALONZO THE BRAVE AND THE FAIR IMOGENE.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> A warrior so bold and a virgin so bright, Conversed as they sat on the green; They gazed on each other with tender delight; Alonzo the Brave was the name of the knight,— The maiden's the Fair Imogene. </div> <div class="stanza"> "And oh!" said the youth, "since to-morrow I go To fight in a far distant land, Your tears for my absence soon ceasing to flow, Some other will court you, and you will bestow On a wealthier suitor your hand!" </div> <div class="stanza"> "Oh cease these suspicions," Fair Imogene said. "Offensive to love and to me; For if you be living, or if you be dead, I swear by the Virgin that none in your stead, Shall husband of Imogene be. </div> <div class="stanza"> "If e'er by lust or by wealth led astray I forget my Alonzo the Brave, God grant that to punish my falsehood and pride Your ghost at the marriage may sit by my side, May tax me with perjury, claim me as bride, And bear me away to the grave."[111] </div> <div class="stanza"> To Palestine hastened the hero so bold, His love she lamented him sore; But scarce had a twelve-month elapsed, when behold! A Baron, all covered with jewels and gold, Arrived at Fair Imogene's door. </div> <div class="stanza"> His treasures, his presents, his spacious domain Soon made her untrue to her vows; He dazzled her eyes, he bewildered her brain, He caught her affection, so light and so vain, And carried her home as his spouse. </div> <div class="stanza"> And now had the marriage been blest by the priest, And revelry now had begun; The tables they groaned with the weight of the feast. Nor yet had the laughter and merriment ceased, When the bell at the castle tolled—one. </div> <div class="stanza"> Then first with amazement Fair Imogene found A stranger was placed by her side; His air was terrific, he uttered no sound— He spake not, he moved not—he looked not around, But earnestly gazed on the bride. </div> <div class="stanza"> His visor was closed, and gigantic his height, His armour was sable to view; All pleasure and laughter were hushed at the sight, All the dogs as they eyed him drew back in afright, All the lights in the chamber burned blue.[112] </div> <div class="stanza"> His presence all bosoms appeared to dismay, The guests sat in silence and fear; At length spake the bride, while she trembled, "I pray, Sir Knight, that your helmet aside you would lay, And deign to partake of our cheer." </div> <div class="stanza"> The lady is silent—the stranger complies— His visor he slowly unclosed; Oh God! what a sight met Fair Imogene's eyes! What word can express her dismay and surprise, When a skeleton's head was exposed. </div> <div class="stanza"> All present then uttered a terrified shout, All turned in disgust from the scene; The worms they crept in, and the worms they crept out, And sported his eyes and his temples about, While the spectre addressed Imogene. </div> <div class="stanza"> "Behold me, thou false one—behold me!" he cried; "Remember Alonzo the Brave! God grant that to punish thy falsehood and pride, My ghost at thy marriage should sit at thy side, Should tax thee with perjury, claim thee as bride, And bear thee away to the grave!" </div> <div class="stanza"> Thus saying, his arms round the lady he wound, While loudly she shrieked in dismay;[113] And sank with his prey through the wide yawning ground, Nor ever again was Fair Imogene found, Or the spectre that bore her away. </div> <div class="stanza"> Not long lived the Baron, and none since that time To inhabit the castle presume; For chronicles say, that by order sublime, There Imogene suffers the pain of her crime, And mourns her deplorable doom. </div> <div class="stanza"> At midnight four times in each year does her sprite, When mortals in slumber are bound, Arrayed in her bridal apparel of white, Appear in the hall of the skeleton knight, And shriek as he whirls her around. </div> <div class="stanza"> While they drink out of skulls, newly torn from the grave, Dancing around them the spectres are seen; Their liquid is blood, and this horrible stave They howl: "To the health of Alonzo the Brave, And his consort, the Fair Imogene." </div> <div class="stanza"> Matthew Gregory Lewis (Monk Lewis). </div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> [114] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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