These get more depressing as they go! Well, the poem is calle The Highwayman. I listened to it as a song by Loreena Mckennitt.

So you're saying I am reincarnated?" Alec cried. Magnus nodded, biting his lip. He knew he would have to tell Alec someday.

" I met you a long time ago, You were telling some children a poem, a song, a story, what ever." Alec blinked at Magnus. Magnus would remember that song for as long as he lived. Forever.

" well! Are you going to tell me!" Magnus blinked, pulling himself out of his memories. He smiled at Alec,

" Of course."

Magnus sauntered into the small town. He had recently moved to America, after the death of both his sister and brother. He still got choked up thinking about it. Walking down the dirty street in his newly bought frock coat, Magnus sneered down at the small children playing in the street. Suddenly a small child ran out to him, splashing him with mud. He withdrew, but it was to late, his coat was ruined,

" Bastard child!" He cried. An older boy came and grabbed the boy before Magnus could strike the child. The older boy, about 18, smacked the younger boy,

" Maxim! What have I told you! Now you'll be mucking the stables for weeks!" The boy shoved the young one off, then turned to Magnus. Magnus stared deep into ice blue eyes,

" Sorry about that sir, I promise you, my brother doesn't mean any harm. I can give you extra cloths if you will come with me." Magnus snarled something, but followed the boy. The boy led him through winding streets. Eventually they came to a small house, where Magnus was given new clothes.

" My dear boy what is your name?" Magnus inquired. The boy blushed,

" Alexander." Magnus smiled. He liked the boy, perhaps, even fancied him.

" Sir, I hope you don't mind, but I wrote a small song about you." Magnus blinked, but his gaze quickly softened.

" Of course not, but I should wish to hear it." Alexander smiled, blushing slightly. He opened his mouth when suddenly a small girl runs up to him, joined by some other children,

" Alec, will you tell us a new story, PLEASE!" Alexander looked longingly at Magnus, who nodded. Alexander nodded at the children who cheered. Alexander pulled Magnus with him, and sat him down on a barrel next to himself, while the children sat on the ground, and Alexander started to sing the words softly,

" The Wind was a torrent of darkness, among the the ghastly trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor. When the highwayman came riding, riding, riding. The Highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door." Alexander winked at Magnus. For once it was Magnus Bane who flushed, how could this boy, he had only just met, know...? But he was singing again, the children's eyes transfixed on the boy with the velvet voice,

" He had a french cocked hat at his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin. A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin. They fitted with nary a wrinkle, his boots were up to the thigh, and he rode with a jeweled twinkle, his pistol butts a-twinkle, his rapier hilt a-twinkle. Under jeweled sky." Magnus blinked. The boy was good, to have come up with this in a mere twenty minutes. To get Magnus's perfect descriptions. Alexanders eyes shined like bright blue orbs as he sang to the children. No, he sang to Magnus.

" And over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard, and he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred. He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there, but the landlord's blue-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter, plaiting a dark red love knot into her long brown hair." Magnus almost laughed, he was giving his own description now. Magnus thought this was cute, but really he knew that he was deeply in love with the boy.

" " One kiss my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight, but I should be back with the yellow gold before the morning light. Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, then look for me by the moonlight. Watch for me by the moonlight. I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way." Alexander winked once again at Magnus, and sly smile crept up his lips.

" He rose up right in the stirrups he scarce could reach her hand, but she loosened her hair in the casement, his face burned like a brand. As a black cascade of perfume, came tumbling over his breast, and he kissed it's waves in the moonlight. Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight. He tugged at his rein in the moonlight and galloped away to the west." The children giggled when Alexander sang about him kissing the girl. Well, Magnus gasped slightly, thinking of their lips caressing each others. Alexander was staring at Magnus, blushing, but thinking the same thing. Alexander continued, looking at the children, using hand gestures to show time passing,

" He did not come at the dawning. He did not come at noon, and out of the tawny sunset before the rise of the moon. When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor. A red coat troop came marching, marching, marching. King George's men came marching, up to the old inn door." The children gasped, and Magnus's knuckles whitened.

" They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead, but they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed. Two of them knelt at the casement with muskets at their side. There was death at every window, Hell at one dark window, for Bess could see through the casement the road that he would ride." Magnus could feel slight tears in his eyes, knowing what was coming, but the children were still oblivious,

" They tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest. They bound a musket beside her with a barrel beneath her breast.

" Now keep good watch" and they kissed her. She heard the dead man say, " Look for me by the moonlight. Watch for me by the moonlight, I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though Hell should bar the way." Alexander bit his lip, and Magnus sighed, here it came, he thought.

" She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good! But she writhed her hands 'til her finger were wet with sweat or blood. They stretch and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years. Till now on the stroke of midnight. Cold on the stroke of midnight, the tip of her finger touched it, the trigger at least was hers." Some villagers had come to join them, wanting to here what this boy was on about. Alexander put his finger to his lips, and everyone fell silent. Slowly he said,

" Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot, had they heard it? The horse's hooves rang clear. Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lit, tot-a-lot in the distance. Were they deaf they did not hear? Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill. The highwayman came riding, riding, riding. The redcoats looked to their priming. She stood up straight and still." Alexander aimed an imaginary gun at the children, who giggled. But the adults leaned in wanting to hear more.

" Tot-a-lot in the frosty silence. Tot-a-lot in the echoing night. Nearer he came and nearer. Her face was like a light. Her eyes grew wide for a moment she drew one last deep breath." The whole crowd seemed to be holding their breath then,

" Then her finger moved in the moonlight, her musket shattered the moonlight. Shattered her breast in the moonlight. And warned him with her death. He turned, he spurred to the west. He did not know she stood, bowed with her head o'er musket, drenched with her own red blood. Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew gray to hear. How Bess the Landlord's daughter, the landlord's blue-eyed daughter, had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there." Every one was silent, staring intently at Alexander, waiting to hear what was coming next. Alexander called loudly, with passion, and feeling,

" And back he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky! With the white road smoking behind him, and his rapier brandished high! Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon, wine-red was his velvet coat. When they shot him down in the highway, down like a dog on the highway, and he lay in his blood in the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat." everyone still silent, let out the breath. Alexander whispered, quietly, like he was telling a secret,

" Still on a winter's night they say, when the wind is in the trees. When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas. When the road is a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor. A highwayman comes riding, riding, riding," Alexanders voice began to fade,as even the children left him there to finish, only Magnus was left when he finally said,

" A highwayman comes riding," Alexander looked at Magnus, " Up to the old inn door." Just then a gunshot rang out.

" Wait, so I confessed my love through a poem, and then was shot!" Magnus nodded solemnly. The couple was seated on the couch alone at Magnus's apartment. Alec sighed,

" Well, that was rather kinky." Magnus laughed,

" But that's why I love you Bess!" Alec blushed,

" Well, you are handsome, Highwayman." They both giggled and fell on the floor laughing.

I realized as I was writing the description for the highwayman, it really does sound like Magnus, very sparkly, or they "twinkled", and tight clothes, or " nary a wrinkle"...makes you wonder doesn't it...Reviews are welcome! Thanks!