Page:The tale of Balen (IA taleofbalen00swin).pdf/107

 Right on King Pellam then, as fire Turns when the thwarting winds wax higher, He turned, and smote him down. So dire The stroke was, when his heart's desire Struck, and had all its fill of hate, That as the king fell swooning down Fell the walls, rent from base to crown, Prone as prone seas that break and drown Ships fraught with doom for freight.

And there for three days' silent space Balen and Pellam face to face Lay dead or deathlike, and the place Was death's blind kingdom, till the grace That God had given the sacred seer For counsel or for comfort led His Merlin thither, and he said, Standing between the quick and dead, 'Rise up, and rest not here.'