Adelgitha

The ordeal’s fatal trumpet sounded,
And sad pale Adelgitha came,
When forth a valiant champion bounded,
And slew the slanderer of her fame.
She wept, delivered from her danger;
But when he knelt to claim her glove-
“Seek not!” she cried, “oh, gallant stranger,
For hapless Adelgitha’s love.

For he is dead and in a foreign land
Whose arm should now have set me free;
And I must wear the willow garland
For him that’s dead, or false to me.”

“Nay! say not that his faith is tainted!”-
He raised his visor.-At the sight
She fell into his arms and fainted;
It was indeed her one true knight!