me home in time,
All might be well. We fairies only catch
Stray gleams, wandering shadows of things to come.

TITANIA

Oh, if the King came home from the Crusade!

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Why will he fight for graves beyond the sea?

OBERON

Our elfin couriers brought the news at dusk
That Lion-Heart, while wandering home thro' Europe,
In jet-black armour, like an errant knight,
Despite the great red cross upon his shield,
Was captured by some wicked prince and thrust
Into a dungeon. Only a song, they say,
Can break those prison-bars. There is a minstrel
That loves his King. If he should roam the world
Singing until from that dark tower he hears
The King reply, the King would be set free.

TITANIA

Only a song, only a minstrel?

OBERON

Ay;
And Blondel is his name.

[_A long, low sound of wailing is heard in the distance. The
fairies shudder and creep together._]

TITANIA

Hark, what is that?

OBERON

The cry of the poor, the cry of the oppressed,
The sound of women weeping for their children,
The victims of the forest laws. The moan
Of that dark world where mortals live and die
Sweeps like an icy wind thro' fairyland.
And oh, it may grow bitterer yet, that sound!
'Twas Merlin's darkest prophecy that earth
Should all be wrapped in smoke and fire, the woods
Hewn down, the flowers discoloured and the sun
Begrimed, until the rows of lifeless trees
Against the greasy sunset seemed no more
Than sooty smudges of an ogre's thumbs
Upon the sweating forehead of a slave.
While, all night long, fed with the souls of men,
And bodies, too, great forges blast and burn
Till the great ogre's cauldrons brim with gold.

[_The wailing sound is heard again in the distance._]

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

To be shut out for ever, only to hear
Those cries! I am only Shadow-of-a-Leaf, the fool,
I cannot face it! Is there no hope but this?
No hope for Robin and Maid Marian?

OBERON

If the great King comes home from the Crusade
In time! If not,--there is another King
Beyond the world, they say.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Death, that dark death!
To leave the sunlight and the flowers for ever!
I cannot bear