Chapter XXVII

“But the wolf bays in the blast afar;
Sir knight, how may they scape such war?
I hear him now—he nearer howls!
Mercy! mercy! save their souls!”
“Hark!” said the knight, and stood aghast;
It was no wolf-howl in the blast;
It was a blood-hound’s dreadful bay,
The stranger heard, with such dismay—
The blood-hound at the tower below;
That over pathless hill and dale,
Had tracked a murderer in the gale,
And came to claim his master’s foe.
While listening to the lengthen’d yell,
The stranger seemed to hear his knell.
“A blood-hound loose, and at this hour!
Your rest, sir knight, had ill been kept;
Nor one within these gates had slept,
Had I been in my distant tower.”
The page he lighted a lamp on high;
The stranger stifled scarce a sigh,
That heavily for utterance pressed.
He heard the page’s steps descend,
And go where the long chambers bend,
Down to the halls, and th’ outer walls.
The page knew not the chance he ran;
He was marked with the blood of a murder’d man!