Stretch with fierce heat; a moment hand to hand, And sword to sword, and horse to horse we hung, Till I struck out and shouted; the blade glanced ; I did but shear a feather, and life and love Flow'd from me; darkness closed me; and I fell. VI. WHAT follow'd, tho' I saw not, yet I heard For when our side was vanquished and my cause For ever lost, there went up a great cry The Prince is slain. My father heard and ran In on the lists, and there unlaced my casque And grovell'd on my body, and after him Came Psyche, sorrowing for Aglaïa. But high upon the palace Ida stood With Psyche's babe in arm: there on the roofs Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n the seed The little seed they laugh'd at in the dark, Of spanless girth, that lays on every side A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun. Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they came; The leaves were wet with women's tears they heard A noise of songs they would not understand. They mark'd it with the red cross to the fall, And would have strown it, and are fall'n themselves. Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they came, The woodmen with their axes: lo the tree! But we will make it faggots for the hearth, • Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they struck ; With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knew There dwelt an iron nature in the grain : The glittering axe was broken in their arms, Their arms were shatter'd to the shoulder blade. Our enemies have fall'n, but this shall grow A night of Summer from the heat, a breadth The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangs 'And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary Is violate, our laws broken: fear we not To break them more in their behoof, whose arms Their statues, borne aloft, the three: but come, We will be liberal, since our rights are won. Let them not lie in the tents with coarse mankind, Ill nurses; but descend, and proffer these The brethren of our blood and cause, that there Lie bruised and maim'd, the tender ministries Of female hands and hospitality.' She spoke, and with the babe yet in her arms, Descending, burst the great bronze valves, and led A hundred maids in train across the Park. Some cowl'd, and some bare-headed, on they came, |