He fell a hundred fathoms.

When he recover’d from the blow,

He saw three lights pass by;
He sought in their pursuit to go,

The lights appear’d to fly. 
They led his footsteps all astray,
Up, down, through many a narrow way

Through ruin’d desert cellars.

When lo! he stood within a hall,

With hollow eyes. and grinning all;
They bade him taste the fare.

A hundred guests sat there. 
He saw his sweetheart ’midst the throng,
Wrapp’d up in grave-clothes white and long;

She turn’d, and——­*

1774. (* This ballad is introduced in Act ii. of Claudine of Villa Bella, where it is suddenly broken off, as it is here.) ----- The Erl-king.

Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear? 
The father it is, with his infant so dear;
He holdeth the boy tightly clasp’d in his arm,
He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.

“My son, wherefore seek’st thou thy face thus to hide?”
“Look, father, the Erl-King is close by our side! 
Dost see not the Erl-King, with crown and with train?”
“My son, ’tis the mist rising over the plain.”

“Oh, come, thou dear infant! oh come thou with me! 
Full many a game I will play there with thee;
On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,
My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold.”

“My father, my father, and dost thou not hear
The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?”
“Be calm, dearest child, ’tis thy fancy deceives;
’Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves.”

“Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there? 
My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care
My daughters by night their glad festival keep,
They’ll dance thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep.”

“My father, my father, and dost thou not see,
How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me?”
“My darling, my darling, I see it aright,
’Tis the aged grey willows deceiving thy sight.”

“I love thee, I’m charm’d by thy beauty, dear boy! 
And if thou’rt unwilling, then force I’ll employ.” 
“My father, my father, he seizes me fast,
Full sorely the Erl-King has hurt me at last.”

The father now gallops, with terror half wild,
He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;
He reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread,—­
The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.

1782.*
-----
Johanna Sebus.

[To the memory of an excellent and beautiful girl of 17, belonging to the village of Brienen, who perished on the 13th of January, 1809, whilst giving help on the occasion of the breaking up of the ice on the Rhine, and the bursting of the dam of Cleverham.]

The dam breaks down, the ice-plain growls, the floods arise, the water howls.