“Oh, glad were I here by your side,
  Full many an hour ago,
But for what there passed on the road
  All so mournfully and so slow.”

“And what have you met on the road
  That kept you so long and so late?”
“O full many an hour has gone
  Since I left my father’s gate.

“As I hastened on in the gloom,
  By the road to you tonight,
I passed the corpse of a young maid
  All clad in a shroud of white.”

“And was she some friend once cherished,
  Or was she a sister dead,
That you left your own true lover
  Till the trysting hour had sped?”

“I could not see who it might be,
  Her face was hidden away,
But I had to turn and follow
  Wherever her resting lay.”

“And did it go up by the town,
  Or went it down by the lake? 
I know there are but two church yards
  Where a corpse its rest may take.”

“They did not go by the town,
  Nor by the lake stayed their feet,
But buried the corpse all silently
  Where the four cross roads meet.”

“And was it so strange a sight
  That you should go like a child
Thus to leave me to wait, forgotten,
  By a passing sight beguiled?”

“Oh, I heard them whisper my name,
  Each mourner that passed by me;
And I had to follow their path,
  Though their faces I could not see.”

“And right well I would like to know
  Who this fair young maid might be,
So take my hand, my own true love,
  And hasten along with me.”

He did not go down by the lake
  He did not go by the town,
But carried her to the four cross roads,
  And there he did set her down.

“Now I see no track of a foot,
  I see no mark of a spade,
And I know well in this white road
  There never a grave was made.”

He took her hand in his right hand,
  And he led her to town away,
And there he questioned the old priest,
  Did he bury a maid that day.

He took her hand in his right hand,
  Down to the church by the lake,
And there he questioned a young priest,
  If a maiden her life did take.

But there was no tale of death
  In all the parish round,
And neither had heard of a maid
  Thus put in unholy ground.

He loosed her hand from his hand,
  And turned on his heel away. 
“I know you are false,” he said,
  “From the lie you told today.”

And she said, “Oh, what evil things
  Did tonight my senses take?”
She knelt down by the water side
  And wept as her heart would break.

And she said, “Oh, what fairy sight
  Was it thus my grief to see! 
I’ll sleep well ’neath the still water,
  Since my love has turned on me.”

* * * * *

And her love he went to the north,
  And far to the south went he,
But still he heard her distant voice
  Call, weeping so bitterly.