III.

All, alas! and well-away! “Oh, sister Ellen, sister sweet, Come with me to the hill I pray, And I will prove that blessed freet!” They rose with soft and silent feet, They left their mother where she lay, Their mother and her care discreet, (All, alas! and well-away!) And soon they reached the Fairy Well, The mountain’s eye, clear, cold, and grey, Wide open in the dreary fell: How long they stood ’twere vain to tell, At last upon the point of day, Bawn Una bares her bosom’s swell, (All, alas! and well-away!) Thrice o’er her shrinking breasts she laves The gliding glance that will not stay Of subtly-streaming fairy waves:— And now the charm three brackens craves, She plucks them in their fringed array:— Now round the well her fate she braves, (All, alas! and well-away!)