And Cyril, one; but that large-moulded man, His visage all agrin as at a wake, Made at me thro' the press, and, staggering back With stroke on stroke the horse and horseman, came As comes a pillar of electric cloud, Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains, And shadowing down the champain till it strikes On a wood, and takes, and breaks, and cracks, and splits, And twists the grain with such a roar that Earth Reels, and the herdsmen cry, for everything Gave way before him: only Florian, he That loved me closer than his own right eye, Till I struck out and shouted; the blade glanced; I did but shear a feather, and life and love K Home they brought her warrior dead : She nor swoon'd, nor utter'd cry: All her maidens, watching, said, 'She must weep or she will die.' Then they praised him, soft and low, Truest friend and noblest foe; Yet she neither spoke nor moved. Stole a maiden from her place, Took the face-cloth from the face; Rose a nurse of ninety years, Set his child upon her kneeLike summer tempest came her tears— 'Sweet my child, I live for thee.' VI. WHAT follow'd, tho' I saw not, yet I heard For when our side was vanquished and my cause For ever lost, there went up a great cry The Prince is slain. My father heard and ran In on the lists, and there unlaced my casque And grovell'd on my body, and after him Came Psyche, sorrowing for Aglaïa. But high upon the palace Ida stood Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n; the seed The little seed they laugh'd at in the dark, Of spanless girth, that lays on every side A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun. Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n; they came; The leaves were wet with women's tears: they heard A noise of songs they would not understand : They mark'd it with the red cross to the fall, And would have strown it, and are fall'n themselves. Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they came, The woodmen with their axes: lo the tree! But we will make it faggots for the hearth, Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they struck ; With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knew There dwelt an iron nature in the grain : |