The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Leading them ever to a vale With hugeous cry and monster wail. Then suddenly their voices fall, And in the park’s resounding pale Only the clamour of the chase Is heard: oh! to the centre race The unsuspicious knights: but he The Questing Beast his former face Of unity resumes : the course Of warriors shocks with man and horse. In mutual madness swift to see They shatter with unbridled force One on another : down they go Swift in stupendous overthrow. Out sword! out lance! Cuirass and helm Splinter beneath the knightly blow. They storm, they charge, they hack and hew, They rush and wheel the press athrough, The weight, the murder, overwhelm One, two, and all. Nor silence knew His empire till Sir Palamede (The last) upon his fairy steed Struck down his brother; then at once Fell silence on the bloody mead, 59