THE TALE OF BALEN
73
'I would the task required and heard
Were heavier than your sovereign word
Hath laid on me:' and thence he spurred
Elate at heart as youth, and stirred
With hope as blithe as fires a boy:
And many a mile he rode, and found
Far in a forest's glimmering bound
The man he sought afar around
And seeing took fire for joy.
And with him went a maiden, fair
As flowers aflush with April air.
And Balen bade him turn him there
To tell the king what woes they were
That bowed him down so sore: and he
Made woful answer: 'This should do
Great scathe to me, with nought for you
Of help that hope might hearken to
For boot that may not be.'
