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!