THE CHILD OF THE SEA.
81
Away to silence, rang another strain,
And furious spurr'd a steed across the plain,
Huge like its giant rider. As he pass'd,
His shadow fell, as if a storm had cast
A sudden night around; grasp'd his right hand
A spear, to which our youth's was but a wand;
Black as his shadow on the darken'd field
Was horse and armour; and his gloomy shield
Was as a cloud passing before the stars.
Eglamour set his lance; scarcely it jars
The mail'd rings of the hauberk: down he bent
In time to shun the one his foeman sent;
Wasting its strength it reach'd the lake beside,
And like a fallen tree dash'd in the tide.
Their swords are out like lightning; one whose stroke
Is as the bolt that fells the forest oak,
G
