To the Marchioness comes a courtier:
"I am prayed to bring you word
That the minstrel keeps his promise
Who brought you news of my lord;

"And he waits without the circle
To kiss your highness' hand;
And he asks no gold for guerdon,
But before he leaves the land

"He craves of your love once proffered
That you suffer him for reward,
In this crowning hour of his glory,
To look on your son, my lord."

Through the silken press of the courtiers
The minstrel faltered in.
His clasped hands were bloodless,
His face was white and thin;

And he bent his knee to the lady,
But of her love and grace
To her heart she raised him and kissed him
Upon his gentle face.

Turned to her son the bridegroom,
Turned to his high-born wife,
"I give you here for your brother
Who gave back my son to life.

"For this youth brought me news from Naples
How thou layest sick and poor,
By true comrades kept, and forsaken
By a false paramour.

"Wherefore I charge you love him
For a brother that is my son."
The comrades turned to the bridegroom
In silence every one.

But the bridegroom looked on the minstrel
With a visage blank and changed,
As his whom the sight of a spectre
From his reason hath estranged;

And the smiling courtiers near them
On a sudden were still as death;
And, subtly-stricken, the people
Hearkened and held their breath

With an awe uncomprehended
For an unseen agony:--
Who is this that lies a-dying,
With her head on the prince's knee?

A light of anguish and wonder
Is in the prince's eye,
"O, speak, sweet saint, and forgive me,
Or I cannot let thee die!

"For now I see thy hardness
Was softer than mortal ruth,
And thy heavenly guile was whiter,
My saint, than martyr's truth."

She speaks not and she moves not,
But a blessed brightness lies
On her lips in their silent rapture
And her tender closed eyes.

Federigo, the son of the Marquis,
He rises from his knee:
"Aye, you have been good, my father,
To them that were good to me.

"You have given them honors and titles,
But here lies one unknown--
Ah, God reward her in heaven
With the peace he gives his own!"

FOOTNOTES:

[2] The author of this ballad has added a thread of evident love-story
to a most romantic incident of the history of Mantua