Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
… son of light, Sir Palamede the Saracen ! Thou wast the subtlest fiend that yet Hath crossed my path. To say thee nay I dare not, but my sword is wet With thy knave’s blood, and with thy clay Fouled! Dost thou think to resurrect? O sweet Lord Christ that savest men! From all such fiends do thou protect Me, Palamede the Saracen!” 101
… Because It is a thing impossible.” Sir Palamede his pulses pause. “It is not possible” (quod he) “That Palamede is wroth, and draws His sword, decapitating thee. By parity of argument This deed of blood must surely be.” With that he suddenly besprent All Scythia with the sage’s blood, And laughing in his woe he went Unto a further field and flood, Aye guided by that wizard’s head, That like a windy moon did scud Before him, winking eyes of red And snapping jaws of white: but then What cared for living or for dead Sir Palamede the Saracen ?
…ut this our Rishis know.” Sir Palamede his way addressed Unto the woods: they blaze and glow; His lance stabs many a shining blade,’ His sword lays many a flower low That glittering gladdened in the glade. He wrote himself a wanton ass, And to the sea his traces laid, Where many a wavelet on the glass His prowess knows. But deep and deep His futile feet in fury pass, 27
58 XXI Now doth Sir Palamede advance The lord of many a sword and lance. In merrie England’s summer sun Their shields and arms a-glittering glance And laugh upon the mossy mead. Now winds the horn of Palamede, As far upon the horizon He spies the Questing Beast a-feed. With loyal craft and honest guile They spread their ranks for many a mile. For when the Beast hath heard the horn He practiseth his ancient wile, And many a myriad beasts invade The stillness of that arméd glade. Now every knight to rest hath borne His lance, and given the accola…
Vv Sir PALAMEDE the Saracen Hath cast his sword and arms aside. To save the world of goodly men, He sets his teeth to ride—to ride! Three days: the black horse drops and dies. The trappings furnish them a fire, The beast a meal. With dreadful eyes Stare into death the child, the sire. Six days : the gaunt and gallant knight Sees hateful visions in the day. Where are the antient speed and might Were wont to animate that clay? Nine days; they stumble on; no more His strength avails to bear the child. Still hangs the mist, and still before Yawns t…
…fury fumes. So doth the Head that jabbers fast Against that woman’s tangled tale. (God’s patience at the end must fail !) Out sweeps the sword—the blade hath passed Through all her scraggy farthingale. “This chatter lends to Thought a zest ” (Quod he), “but I am all for Act. Sit here, until your Talk hath cracked The addled egg in Nature’s nest!” With that he fled the dismal tract. c 33
XXXVIII Srr PaLaMeEDE of great renown Rode through the land upon the quest, His sword loose and his vizor down, His buckler braced, his lance in rest. Now, then, God save thee, Palamede! Who courseth yonder on the field? Those silver arms, that sable steed, The sun and rose upon his shield? The strange knight spurs to him. Disdain Curls the proud lip as he uplifts His vizor. ‘Come, an end! In vain, Sir Fox, thy thousand turns and shifts!” Sir Palamede was white with fear. Lord Christ! those features were his own; His own that voice so icy clear…
…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
…ncelot spake: “Thy deeds atone By knightly devoir!” He returned That “While the land was overgrown With giant, fiend, and ogre burned My sword ; but now the Paynim bars Are broke, and men to virtue turned : Therefore I sit upon the scars Amid my beard, even as the sun Sits in the company of the stars!” Then Lancelot bade this deed be done, The achievement of the Questing Beast. Which when he spoke that holy one Rose up, and gat him to the east With Lancelot; when as they drew Unto the palace and the feast He put his littlest finger to The dwarf…
…ck steed. He gallops raging through the press : The affrighted heathen fear his eye. There madness gleams, there masterless The whirling sword shrieks shrill and high, They shrink, he gallops. Closely clings The child slung at his waist; and he Heeds nought, but gallops wide, and sings Wild war-songs, chants of gramarye! 13
… mouth, Draining the dregs of that black blight Of wine to ease their double drouth! God! what a glance! Sir Palamede Is stricken by the sword of fate : His mother it is in very deed That gleeful goes the goatish gait. His mother it his, that pure and pale Cried in the pangs that gave him birth; The holy image he would veil From aught the tiniest taint of earth.
…east the knight may knightly act: The wisest monk in Christendom May have his skull broke by a fact.” With that, as a snake strikes, his sword Leapt burning to the burning blue; And fell, one swift, assured award, Stabbing that hunchback through and through.
…ul Of each knight stirred. With vigour rude, The blast tore down the tapestry That hid the door. All ashen-hued The knights laid hand to sword. But he (Sir Palamedes) in the gap Was found—God knoweth—bitterly Weeping. Cried Arthur: “Strange the hap! My knight, my dearest knight, my friend ! What gift had Fortune in her lap Like thee? Embrace me!” “ Rather rend Your garments, if you love me, sire!” (Quod he). “Iam come unto the end. All mine intent and my desire, My quest, mine oath—all, all is done. Burn them with me in fatal fire! For I have f…
…r winds; he follows it; Dark is the way; the air is blind; Black, black the blackness of the pit, The light long blotted out behind! His sword sweeps out; his keen glance peers For some shape glimmering through the gloom: Naught, naught in all that void appears ; More still, more silent than the tomb! Yet now the good knight is aware Of some black force, of some dread throne, Waiting beneath that awful stair, Beneath that pit of slippery stone. Yea! though he sees not anything, Nor hears, his subtle sense is ’ware That, lackeyed by the devil-ki…
…e-head fairly struck The barred strength of his morion, And rolled the stranger in the muck. “ Now, by God’s death!” quoth Palamede, His sword at work, “I will not leave So much of thee as God might feed His sparrows with. As I believe The sweet Christ’s mercy shall avail, So will I not have aught for thee ; Since every bone of thee may rail Against me, crying treachery.
…id worship the sun upon Stonehenge. He rideth eastward, and findeth the sun setting in the west. Furious he taketh a Viking ship, and by sword and whip fareth seaward. ix. Coming to India, he learneth that It glittereth. Vainly fighting the waves, the leaves, and the snows, he is swept in the Himalayas as by an avalanche into a valley where dwell certain ascetics, who pelt him with their eyeballs. x. Seeking It as Majesty, he chaseth an elephant in the Indian jungle. The elephant escapeth ; but he, led to Trichinopoli by an Indian lad, seeth an…