## The Song of the Drac **I** In the midst of the Rhône, the current roars, Along the bank where the monster waits. A handsome knight from the dark deep soars, His voice is sweet, like a spell that captivates. The moonlight kisses his shining mail, Yet under his gaze the snare is laid: Whoever yields to his tender tale Is lost in the depths where all light fades. **II** "Come, oh come, noble washer at the shore, To my bright hall with golden gleam!" Cries the fiend from the river’s core, To steal her heart, her thought and her living stream. Thinking she plucks a wandering light, By the demon’s grasp she’s borne away, And sinks beneath the silvered night, Her soul’s last cry smothered by the spray. **III** Seven long years in the freezing tide, She rocks the child of the cursed spawn. All of her past is swept aside, Save the lost glow of her vanished dawn. But a secret, sorcerous ointment rare Brushes her eyes with sudden flame: The shining halls are a chalk-strewn lair, And the gallant knight a wretch of shame. **IV** The bargain is done, she feels the sun, Freed from the flood, she walks Beaucaire. Yet the Drac still creeps where the roads all run, Masked in the skin of a commoner there. "I see you, damned one!" she boldly cries. The raging beast breaks off her word: With one keen claw for her daring eyes, He scars the sight that his true form stirred. **V** Traveler, heed what the Rhône makes known: Never be lured by the gleam of gold. The deadliest perils wear neither crown And wandering lies stalk the careless and bold. Guard both your eyes when you scan the land, Seek not each secret that terror has sown, For truth runs deep like a cutting brand, And leaves its mark on the too-all-seeing eye alone.
