Adelgitha

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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!

© Thomas Campbell