Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/107

Rh But I will fight unknown, and in plain arms:

Let not men say of Rustum, he was matched

In single fight with any mortal man."

He spoke, and frowned; and Gudurz turned, and ran

Back quickly through the camp in fear and joy,—

Fear at his wrath, but joy that Rustum came.

But Rustum strode to his tent-door, and called

His followers in, and bade them bring his arms,

And clad himself in steel. The arms he chose

Were plain, and on his shield was no device;

Only his helm was rich, inlaid with gold,

And, from the fluted spine a-top, a plume

Of horse-hair waved, a scarlet horse-hair plume.

So armed, he issued forth; and Ruksh, his horse,

Followed him like a faithful hound at heel,—

Ruksh, whose renown was noised through all the earth,

The horse whom Rustum on a foray once

Did in Bokhara by the river find

A colt beneath its dam, and drove him home,

And reared him; a bright bay, with lofty crest.

Dight with a saddle-cloth of broidered green

Crusted with gold, and on the ground were worked

All beasts of chase, all beasts which hunters know.

So followed, Rustum left his tents, and crossed

The camp, and to the Persian host appeared.

And all the Persians knew him, and with shouts

Hailed; but the Tartars knew not who he was.

And dear as the wet diver to the eyes

Of his pale wife who waits and weeps on shore,

By sandy Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf,

Plunging all day in the blue waves, at night,

Having made up his tale of precious pearls,

Rejoins her in their hut upon the sands,—

So dear to the pale Persians Rustum came.