Page:Songs of the Road Doyle.djvu/86

Rh I can recall the Tigris' strand,

Where once the Turk and Tartar met,

When the great Lord of Samarcand

Struck down the Sultan Bajazet.

Under a ten-league swirl of dust

The roaring battle swings and sways,

Now reeling down, now upward thrust,

The crescent sparkles through the haze.

I see the Janissaries fly,

I see the chain-mailed leader fall,

I hear the Tekbar clear and high,

The true believer's battle-call.

And tossing o'er the press I mark

The horse-tail banner over all,

Shaped like the smudge of mildew dark

That lies on the distempered wall.