The squire, on hearing so strange an announcement, had striven to draw his lord away; but the Count, with his eyes fixed on the minstrel, remained motionless, listening to this song.
A maiden had a lover gay Who said he was a squire; The war-drums called him far away; Not tears could quench his fire. “Thou goest to return no more.” “Nay, by all oaths that bind”-- But even while the lover swore, A voice was on the wind: _Ill fares the soul that sets its trust_ _On faith of dust._
Forth from his castle rode the lord With all his glittering train, But never will his battle-sword Inflict so keen a pain. “His soldier-honor well he keeps; Mine honor--blind! oh, blind!” While the forsaken woman weeps, A voice is on the wind: _Ill fares the soul that sets its trust_ _On faith of dust._
Her brother’s eye her secret reads; His fatal angers burn. “Thou hast us shamed.” Her terror pleads,-- “He swore he would return.” “But not to find thee, if he tries, Where he was wont to find.” Beneath her brother’s blow she dies; A voice is on the wind: _Ill fares the soul that sets its trust_ _On faith of dust._
In the trysting-wood, where love made mirth, They have buried her deep,--but lo! However high they heap the earth, A hand as white as snow Comes stealing up, a hand whose ring A noble’s troth doth bind. Above her grave no maidens sing, But a voice is on the wind: _Ill fares the soul that sets its trust_ _On faith of dust._
Hardly had the singer finished the last stanza, when, breaking through the wall of eager listeners who respectfully gave way on recognizing him, the Count fronted the pilgrim and, clutching his arm, demanded in a low, convulsive voice:
“And where hast thou learned this ballad? Who is that maiden of whom the story tells?” again exclaimed the Count, with ever more profound emotion.
“My lord,” said the pilgrim, fixing his eyes upon the Count with imperturbable steadiness, “this ballad is passed from mouth to mouth among the peasants in the fief of Gômara, and it refers to an unhappy village-girl cruelly wronged by a great lord. The high justice of God has permitted that, in her burial, there shall still remain above the earth the hand on which her lover placed a ring in plighting her his troth. Perchance you know whom it behooves to keep that pledge.”