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!