| |
| “BRING me,” he said, “that scribe of fame, | |
| Symeon el Siddekah his name: | |
| With parchment skin, and pen in hand, | |
| I would devise my Cornish land. | |
| |
| “Seven goodly manors, fair and wide, | 5 |
| Stretch from the sea to Tamar side: | |
| And Bien-aimé, my hall and bower, | |
| Nestles beneath tall Stratton Tower. | |
| |
| “All these I render to my God, | |
| By seal and signet, knife and sod: | 10 |
| I give and grant to church and poor, | |
| In franc-almoign forevermore. | |
| |
| “Choose ye seven men among the just, | |
| And bid them hold my lands in trust; | |
| On Michael’s morn, and Mary’s day, | 15 |
| To deal the dole, and watch and pray. | |
| |
| “Then bear me coldly o’er the deep, | |
| Mid my own people I would sleep: | |
| Their hearts shall melt, their prayers will breathe, | |
| Where he who loved them rests beneath. | 20 |
| |
| “Mould me in stone as here I lie, | |
| My face upturned to Syria’s sky: | |
| Carve ye this good sword at my side, | |
| And write the legend, ‘True and tried.’ | |
| |
| “Let mass be said, and requiem sung; | 25 |
| And that sweet chime I loved be rung: | |
| Those sounds along the northern wall | |
| Shall thrill me like a trumpet-call.” | |
| |
| Thus said he, and at set of sun | |
| The bold Crusader’s race was run. | 30 |
| Seek ye his ruined hall and bower? | |
| Then stand beneath tall Stratton Tower. | |
| |
