The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE EQUINOX Who would be found On the ground Of Mahound A recreant knight, and a renegade boaster? Better we each Leave our bones here to bleach And be saved, than go burn with the Paynim impostorl For the infidel swine Lack our spirit divine ; Their crazy old prophet prohibits them wine! Drink, every knight! God and my right! We’ll drive the black dogs to their kennels to-nightl SIR JAMES. Peace to thy ribaldry! Here comes the Preceptor. To saddle! JOCELYN. Why cannot he ride with us, as a good knight and gay? SIR JAMES. Who poises in his mind the destinies of Christendom needs not in his ear thy fool's prattle, or thy fool’s face at his elbow. Though he have seen but five-and- twenty summers he is wiser than many a greybeardl See, even afar, how weightily he sits his horse. His forehead bent, his shoulders arched—~ JOCELYN. The seat of a hunchback 1 SIR JAMES. Like Atlas supporting the world. SIR RAYMOND. Good Jocelyn, could thy wisest thought match his most foolish, thou would’st sit at the council. JOCELYN. Gramercyl I smile awry. With a hawk on my wrist, and a madrigal at my lips, a prayer in the morning 72