Page:Collected poems vol 1 de la mare.djvu/159

 While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
 * 'Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even
 * Louder, and lifted his head: —

"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
 * That I kept my word," he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,
 * Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
 * From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup.
 * And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,
 * When the plunging hoofs were gone.