THE BALLAD OF ZEPHADEE.

HE baron sat among his guests—
They drank the ruby wine,
While ember light showed faces bright,
And made the goblets shine.

Witch-cries rode rampant on the wind,
Down came the drenching rain;
The guests drank on, and every one
Filled full his cup again.

The baron had his daughter there-
She sat at his right hand,

And bosoms swelled when eyes beheld
The love of all the land.

Her face was as a lady-smock,
Red fainting in the white;
Ay, she was fair and debonnair—
Thrice worthy any knight.

No lips had ever won her heart,
Though lips had often said,
"Sweet Angeline, wilt thou be mine?"

And she had turned her head.

Now while loud laughter drowned the jest,
And brown beer drowned despight,

A minstrel came in Jesus' name

For shelter from the night.

"What is thy name?" the baron said;
"A minstrel seemest thou;

An' thou dost bring a song to sing,
Thou shalt be served, I trow."

"Good master of the festal throng,
I come from Paynim strand,
And I will sing of our brave king

Who fights in Holyland."

VOL. IX., N.S. 1872.

G

"What is thy name?" the baron cried. "I come from far-off strand."

"Now, fire and flame, what is thy name?" "I come from Fairyland."

Fierce anger lit the baron's brow;

He shouted, sword in hand,

With scoffing breath, "Take him to death!
He comes from Fairyland."

The minstrel moved nor eye nor limb,

But said as he did stand,

"Drop down thy sword upon the board: I come from Fairyland."

"Take him to death!" the baron cried.
The minstrel one word spake :
Down dropped the sword upon the board,
And all but one did quake.

Then joy was in the minstrel's eye;

"Come hither, Angeline;

My name to thee is Zephadee;

I would that thou wert mine.

"Dear maid, I've searched through Fairyland

For one as fair as thee,

And none but thou, and this I vow,

Hath charmed Zephadee."

She looked into his face and saw

The lover of her dreams : "Yea, I am thine, thy Angeline, Thou lover of my dreams.

"I knew that thou would'st come for me
In sweet love-land to roam,

Where fairies play by night and day
About thy palace home."

The guests were bounden by a spell;

They could not laugh nor frown

If one held up a brimming cup

He could not lay it down.

The minstrel turned him to the guests,
And took away the charm:

"I came not here to bring ye fear,
Or work ye any harm.

"I came to seek a maiden's smile,
And find my wonder joy—
Fair Angeline for aye is mine,
And our love may not cloy.

"Now let the wine go round again,
And to this festal band

I straight will tell what thing befel
That won me Fairyland.

"I journeyed long from Palestine,
And came to Britain's shore.
(Sit, love, by me, thy Zephadee,
And I will tell thee more.)

"I sang of deeds in Holyland-
I sang of Richard's fame,
And by the sea there came to me
A grey man, old and lame.

"That old grey-bearded man came close,

And took me by the hand : 'Wilt sing again to me that strain,

And win thee Fairyland?'

"I laughed because his words seemed strange, And laughing loosed his hand :

I sang again to him that strain,

And won me Fairyland.

"Give me thy child, and I will give
Whate'er thou mayst demand;
At dawn of day we'll sail away
Unto the Summer land.

"There all that is, is surely best,
There love is love indeed,
And care is not in that fair spot,

And sorrows do not bleed.

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE TALLANTS OF BARTON," "THE VALLEY OF POPPIES," &c.

CHAPTER IX.

JACOB GETS UP EARLY AND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF
SPENZONIAN WHIFFLER.

ARLY the next morning Jacob was awakened by a noise of thumping, and plunging, and knocking, and scrubbing, and scouring. When he had dressed, and was descending the stairs, he was saluted with a rough. push from a side door, and an exclamation of: "Now, you sir, can't you keep to the right when you see that the other side's wet?" On turning round he met the gaze of Dorothy Cantrill, wrapped up to the neck in a coarse apron, and with her arms black and bare. She glared at him furiously for a moment, and then went on rubbing the brass round a bedroom key-hole with an energy quite unnecessary upon such a trifle of metal. A boy, coming upstairs, in corduroy clothes (ornamented with brass buttons, and made something after the fashion of Harlequin's suit), almost exploded, in apparently desperate efforts to keep down a strong exercise of his risible faculties; and looking at Jacob several times, over his shoulder, blew out his cheeks, held his sides, and stooped, as if with great effort, to intimate that he was very much tickled and delighted at Dorothy's conduct.

"Now then, you Spen, have you brought that brush?" cried Dorothy, dashing out upon Whiffler, when he had reached the landing, and seizing the brush in question; "now fetch me a pail :" whereupon Whiffler, leaping down six stairs at a time and turning a somersault at the bottom, disappeared at the back of the house.

Below stairs Jacob found his new abode in extraordinary disorder. It was just as though the whole of the furniture, having had a midnight revel with Hans Christian Andersen, had been transfixed in their unlawful positions by some angry magician. Chairs were locked in fond embraces, or standing carelessly upside down. Tables were making love to arm-chairs. Ornaments of every description had been romping on the sofa. A little jaunty card table was perched upon a sideboard, petrified no doubt in the very act of shouting