In traveller's weeds Ramiro sate
By the fountain at the castle-gate;
But under the weeds was his breast-plate,
And the sword he had tried in so many fights,
And the horn whose sound would ring around,
And be known so well by his knights.
From the gate Aldonza's damsel came
To fill her pitcher at the spring,
And she saw, but she knew not, her master the king.
In the Moorish tongue Ramiro spake,
And begg'd a draught for mercy's sake,
That he his burning thirst might slake;
For worn by a long malady,
Not strength enow, he said, had he
To lift it from the spring.
She gave her pitcher to the king,
And from his mouth he dropt a ring
Which he had with Aldonza broken;
So in the water from the spring
With that she bade her damsel bring
Secretly the stranger in.
"What brings thee hither, Ramiro ?" she cried:
"The love of you," the king replied.
"Nay! nay! it is not so!" quoth she,
"Ramiro, say not this to me!
I know your Moorish concubine
Hath now the love which once was mine.
If you had loved me as you say,
You would never have stolen Ortiga away;
If you had never loved another,
I had not been here in Gaya to-day
The wife of Ortiga's brother!
King Alboazar draweth near.”
In her alcove she bade him hide :
"King Alboazar, my lord," she cried,
“What wouldst thou do, if at this hour
King Ramiro were in thy power?"
"This I would do," the Moor replied,
"I would hew him limb from limb,
As he, I know, would deal by me,
So I would deal by him."
"Alboazar!" Queen Aldonza said,
"Lo! here I give him to thy will ;
In yon alcove thou hast thy foe,
Now thy vengeance then fulfil !"
With that upspake the Christian king: "O! Alboazar deal by me
As I would surely deal with thee, If I were you, and you were me! Like a friend you guested me many a day, Like a foe I stole your sister away; The sin was great, and I felt its weight, All joy by day the thought opprest, And all night long it troubled my rest; Till I could not bear the burthen of care,
And he, my sinful soul to save,
This penance for atonement gave;
That I before you should appear
And yield myself your prisoner here,
If my repentance was sincere,
That I might by a public death
Breathe shamefully out my latest breath.
"King Alboazar, this I would do,
If you were I, and I were you;
I would give you a roasted capon first,
And a skinfull of wine to quench your thirst,
And after that I would grant you the thing
Which you came to me petitioning.
Now this, O King, is what I crave,
That I my sinful soul may save:
Let me be led to your bull-ring,
And call your sons and daughters all,
And assemble the people both great and small,
And let me be set upon a stone,
That by all the multitude I may be known,
And bid me then this horn to blow,
And I will blow a blast so strong,
And wind the horn so loud and long
That the breath in my body at last shall be gone,
And I shall drop dead in sight of the throng.
Thus your revenge, O King, will be brave,
Granting the boon which I come to crave,
And the people a holyday sport will have,
And I my precious soul shall save;
For this is the penance my confessor gave.
King Alboazar, this I would do,
If you were I, and I were you."
"This man repents his sin, be sure !"
To Queen Aldonza said the Moor,
"He hath stolen my sister away from me,
I have taken from him his wife;
Shame then would it be when he comes to me,
And I his true repentance see,
If I for vengeance should take his life."
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