24 June 2026
(5 June 2015) We remind our readers that last week we listened as Geraldine told her ‘sad tale’, and we learned that the Baron and Geraldine’s father used to be the closest of friends but suffered an estrangement. Now, we see his response to this story:
Sir Leoline, a moment’s space,
Stood gazing on the damsel’s face:
And the youthful Lord of Tryermaine
Came back upon his heart again.
O then the Baron forgot his age,
His noble heart swelled high with rage;
He swore by the wounds in Jesu’s side
He would proclaim it far and wide,
With trump and solemn heraldry,
That they, who thus had wronged the dame,
Were base as spotted infamy!
‘And if they dare deny the same,
My herald shall appoint a week,
And let the recreant traitors seek
My tourney court—that there and then
I may dislodge their reptile souls
From the bodies and forms of men!’
He spake: his eye in lightning rolls!
For the lady was ruthlessly seized; and he kenned
In the beautiful lady the child of his friend!
Who could not have predicted this response from the Baron! Righteous anger fills him over the wrongs the daughter of his long estranged friend, leading him to swear an oath against the miscreants who have perpetrated this heinous crime; he vows to meet them on the field of honor that he can “dislodge their reptile souls!” The old Baron now feels his youthful strength returning, because of this worthy cause. Now he sees his friend in the face and form of Geraldine, and this will spur him to further effort on her behalf. Do not forget that this ‘child’ is not all that she seems to be, and we should be suspicious of all that she tells us. For more of Coleridge’s strange, unfinished poem, return again Friday. Good reading!
Clyde B. Northrup 
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