Well pleased the audience heard the tale. <br />The Theologian said: 'Indeed, <br />To praise you there is little need; <br />One almost hears the farmers flail <br />Thresh out your wheat, nor does there fail <br />A certain freshness, as you said, <br />And sweetness as of home-made bread. <br />But not less sweet and not less fresh <br />Are many legends that I know, <br />Writ by the monks of long-ago, <br />Who loved to mortify the flesh, <br />So that the soul might purer grow, <br />And rise to a diviner state; <br />And one of these--perhaps of all <br />Most beautiful--I now recall, <br />And with permission will narrate; <br />Hoping thereby to make amends <br />For that grim tragedy of mine, <br />As strong and black as Spanish wine, <br />I told last night, and wish almost <br />It had remained untold, my friends; <br />For Torquemada's awful ghost <br />Came to me in the dreams I dreamed, <br />And in the darkness glared and gleamed <br />Like a great lighthouse on the coast.' <br /> <br />The Student laughing said: 'Far more <br />Like to some dismal fire of bale <br />Flaring portentous on a hill; <br />Or torches lighted on a shore <br />By wreckers in a midnight gale. <br />No matter; be it as you will, <br />Only go forward with your tale.'<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-part-2-interlude-v/
