Before his troubled imagination rose a vision of the lovely Constance,
beautiful and pure as when, trusting his treacherous words, she left the
peaceful walls of her convent. He knew she was now a captive in convent
cell, and the strange words of the Palmer, added to the song of the
squire, had made him unhappy. "Alas!" he thought, "would that I had left
her in purity to live, in holiness to die." Twice he was ready to order,
"To horse," that he might fly to Lindisfarne and command that not one
golden ringlet of her fair head be harmed, and twice he thought, "They
dare not. I gave orders that she should be safe, though not at large."
While thus love and repentance strove in the breast of the lord, the
landlord began a weird tale, suggested by the speech of the Palmer. As
Marmion listened, he gathered from the legend that not far from where
they sat, a knight might learn of future weal or woe. He might,
perchance, meet "in the charmed ring" his deadliest foe, in the form of
a spectre, and with it engage in mortal combat. If victorious over this
supernatural antagonist, the omen was victory in all future
undertakings.
"Marmion longed to prove his chance;
In charmed ring to break a lance.
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