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 294 MORRIS

They raise no cry of battle nor cast forth threat of

woe, And their helmed and hidden faces from each other

none may know : Then a light in the hall ariseth, and the fire of

battle runs All adown the front of the Niblungs in the face of

the mighty-ones; All eyes are set upon them, hard drawn is every

breath, Ere the foremost points be mingled and death be

blent with death. All eyes save the eyes of Hogni; but e'en as the

edges meet, He turneth about for a moment to the gold of the

kingly seat, Then aback to the front of battle; there then, as

the lightning-flash Through the dark night showeth the city when the

clouds of heaven clash, And the gazer shrinketh backward, yet he seeth

from end to end The street and the merry market, and the windows

of his friend, And the pavement where his footsteps yester'en

returning trod, Now white and changed and dreadful 'neath the

threatening voice of God; So Hogni seeth Gudrun, and the face he used to

know,

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