THE QUEEN’S ROOM, SIZERGH HALL, WESTMORLAND.
Tradition has conferred on this apartment the name of the Queen’s Room. Catherine Parr, the last queen of Henry VIII., is said to have occupied this apartment for several nights after the king’s death.
Y, regal the chamber, and stately the gloom
That the old oaken panels fling over the room;
The carving is gilded—the hangings are rare;
Yet, stranger, I warn thee—Oh! slumber not there.
For when the lamp dies in the dead of the night,
And when the wan moon has exhausted her light,
By that mirror of silver a pale lady stands,
And rends her long tresses and wrings her white hands.
Years have pass’d since that lady smoothed back her bright hair,
And asked of the glass if her image was fair:
It was not for her husband she braided its gold,
Or flung from its brightness the veil’s silver fold.
He slew her while watching her cheek where the rose
Was reddening in beauty, like sunshine on snows.
He slew her—the glass was yet warm with her breath—
She turn'd to her lover—she turned to her death.
Less crimson the wine-cup that stood at her side,
Than the red stream which gushed with her life on its tide,
A groan and a gasp, and the struggle is o’er—
The blood which he spilt is yet there—on the floor.
No prayer by her death-bed—no mass for her soul—
No bell on the depths of the midnight to toll;
Unshrouded, uncoffin’d they laid her to rest,
The grave was unholy—the ground was unblest.
She comes with the midnight—meet not her cold eye,
It shines but on those who are fated to die.
She comes with the midnight, when spirits have power—
She comes with the midnight, and evil the hour.
She comes from the grave, with its secret and pain,
The grave which recalleth its truant again.
The chamber grows damp with the charnel-like air;
Then, stranger, I warn thee—oh ! slumber not there.
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