WITH THE STORY TELLERS

When they arrived in Dublin,
The king again took heart;
Forgot alike his failures
And his promises to Art:
Not so that prince, to whom it seemed
Those pledges now should be redeemed,
He gave him when distrest;
And so to Dublin straight he came,
His wife’s Kildare estates to claim,
But Ormond played a subtle game
And managed his arrest.
Then hard with Leinster’s Prince ’twould fare,
Should Richard’s minions only dare
That doughty chief to kill;
But since to England he must go;
Lest war should follow such a blow,
Their base designs they must forego;
Though much against their will.

 

But for the chief returning home,
Another plot was laid;

The Saxon lord of Talbotstown,
Prince Art his guest has made.

Within his splendid mansion, which
The Irish call Glencree;

He bade him and his harper share
His hospitality.

But when his faithful harper
Suspicious movements spied;

The gathering of armed men
In the big court outside.

He lost no time to intimate,

His prince was then in peril great,

laying in thrilling Gaelic vein,
Upon his harp this warning strain.

 

“lve seen the faithless Sassenach,
And even heard him say,

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