Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/219

Rh I held by Scindia—my lance from butt to tuft was dyed,

The froth of battle bossed the shield and roped the bridle-chain—

What time beneath our horses' feet a maiden rose and cried,

And clung to Scindia, and I turned a sword-cut from the twain.

(He set a spell upon the maid in woodlands long ago,

A hunter by the Tapti banks she gave him water there:

He turned her heart to water, and she followed to her woe.

What need had he of Lalun who had twenty maids as fair?)

Now in that hour strength left my lord; he wrenched his mare aside;

He bound the girl behind him and we slashed and struggled free.