Читать книгу Story-Telling Ballads. Selected and Arranged for Story-Telling and Reading Aloud and for the Boys' and Girls' Own Reading онлайн

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Kept watch there night and day.

Belted Will pursued him hard,

Amid the flame and stour,

For he cut the skirt from the Baron’s cloak,

As he whisked through the door.

“Save me, now, thou gruesome Elf,

And my soul and body’s thine!”

The Dwarf he jabbered hideously,

But never made a sign.

Belted Will called for a ram,

To bash the doorway down;

The red flames thro’ the keyhole flashed,

And filled wi’ reek the room.

“My soul and body,” the Baron said,

Abjuring Christ His sign;

The Devil he grippit him in his arms,

“Now, Baron, art thou mine.”

The door ga’ed splintering from the posts,

In rushed the enemy;

But Baron, Dwarf, and gold table,

I wat they could ne’er see.

And legends say the ugsome Dwarf

Threw all into a well,

And by the glamour o’ his art

Cast over all a spell;

Which never may be rendered vain

But by a Widow’s Son;

And he shall find the gold table,

When years away have run.

Frederick Sheldon. (Condensed)

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A.D. 1400

It was Earl Haldan’s daughter,