The Lady Alice. I. What doth the Lady Alice so late on the turret-stair, Without a lamp to light her but the diamond inher hair ; When every arching passage overflows with shallowgloom, And dreams float through the castle, into everysilent room ? She trembles at her footsteps, although their fallis light ; For through the turret-loopholes she sees themurky night,— Black, broken vapours streaming across the stormyskies,— Along the empty corridors the moaning tempestcries. She steals along a gallery, she pauses by adoor ; And fast her tears are dropping down upon theoaken floor ; And thrice she seems returning,—but thrice sheturns again ;— Now heavy lie the cloud of sleep on that oldfather’s brain ! Oh, well it were that never thou should’st, wakenfrom thy sleep ! For wherefore should they waken who waken butto weep ? No more, no more beside thy bed may Peace hervigil keep ; Thy sorrow, like a lion, waits* upon its prey toleap. II. An afternoon in April. No sun appears on high ; A moist and yellow lustre fills the deepness ofthe sky ; And through the castle gateway, with slow andsolemn tread, Along the leafless avenue they bear the honoureddead. They stop. The long line closes up, like somegigantic worm ; A shape is standing in the path ; a wan and ghost-like form ; Which gazes fixedly, nor moves ; nor utters anysound ; Then, like a statue built of snow, falls lifeless tothe ground. And though her clothes are ragged, and thoughher feet are bare ; And though all wild and tangled, falls her heavysilk-brown hair ; Though from her eyes the brightness, from hercheeks the bloom, has fled ; They know their Lady Alice, the Darling of theDead. With silence, in her own old room the faintingform they lay ; Where all things stand unaltered since the nightshe fled away ; But who shall bring to life again her father fromthe clay ? But who shall give her back again her heart ofthat old day ? * The lion was said to ‛ prey on nothing that doth seemas dead.’