Page:The Statues in the Block and Other Poems (1881).djvu/35

Rh They are stunned by the thud of the fight, they are deer without a leader; Their charge has died like the impulse of missiles freed from the sling; Their spears waver like shaken barley,—they are dumb-struck and ready to fly!

Hamah Tabah the Captain, in words like the pouring of pitch, has painted The terrible scene for the sick King, and terrible answer follows. Up from the couch of pain, disdaining the bonds of weakness; Flinging aside disease as a wrestler flings his tunic; Strong with the smothered fire of fever, and fiercer far than its flaming, Rises in mail from the litter Muley Malek the King!

Down on his plunging stallion, in the eyes of the shuddered troops, His bent plume like a smoke, and his sword like a flame,