Where fiery pain
Shall purge the stain
Of actions done below.
In that sad place,
By Mary's grace,
Brief may thy dwelling be!
Till prayers and alms,
And holy psalms,
Shall set the captive free.
While this dirge was sung, in a low and melancholy tone, by the female choristers, the others
were divided into two bands, of which one was
engaged in bedecking, with such embroidery as
their skill and taste could compass, a large silken
pall, destined to cover the bier of Athelstane,
while the others busied themselves in selecting,
from baskets of flowers placed before them, garlands, which they destined for the same mournful purpose. The behaviour of the maidens was
decorous, if not marked with deep affliction; but
now and then a whisper or a smile called forth
the rebuke of the severer matrons, and here and
