He ceases—and the echoes cheer
The prison columns' outspread wing,
The vaulted ceiling, where they ring:
Until—as if they froze with fear,
Where ends the lengthy corridor,
The echoes sleep for evermore.
The profound stillness of the night
Brings back again time's endless chain,
And the captive sees his joys and plight
In troubled dreams return again.
These thoughts of youthful years of yore,
Tempt now anew his dreams' rich store:
While tears of longing fill his eyes,
His heart-beats drown in burdened sighs:
For worlds that passed, to be no more.
Where past the lake, a mountain range
Slopes toward the western level floor,
It seems that there, by fate beguiled
He plays again—a child once more.
As a child by father cast away
He grows with bandits, strange and wild;
Later he rules the outlaws' den,
Commits unheard of deeds of shame,
As the "Dreadful Forest Lord" whose name
Is widely known and feared by men.
His thwarted love for a withered rose
Incites him to a cruel plot,
And when her ravisher he knows,
He slays his father—knowing not.
For this he's in the prison cast
Before the gallows claim their toll;
21
