Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/89

 Ay, than the words of disgrace. So go I to destruction,

Nay, though I win to my tomb in the day of evil fortune/'

And I turned my mare and sprang, like a lion in the seizing,

And I pressed her flank with my heel and sent her flying forward,

And I charged home on their ranks, nor thought of wound nor danger.

And I smote them with my sword till the air shone with smiting.

And I met them once and twice with stark blows homeward driven.

And they pressed me left and right as the high banks of a river,

Even the River Nile in the full day of its flooding,

And the whirlpools sweep with might and overwhelm the bridges.

Twenty foes and five fell down before me smitten,

Nor cared I them to slay, being of Alia's kindred,

But tumbled them on the ground with sharp taste of my spear-point.

And they turned back in confusion, each man to his own dwelling,

While I pursued them still as the King Death pursueth.

And I pricked them with my spear from the first third to the latest.

And they stopped, and charged, and rallied the while I pressed and smote them.