Its own grave and the state’s were made.
Like Samson’s heart-breakers it grew,
In time to make a nation rue;
Though it contributed its own fall
To wait upon the public downfall.”
What befel this tawny beard we learn from the same faithful narrative of the knight’s adventures:
“At that an egg let fly,
Hit him directly o’er the eye,
And, running down his cheek, besmear’d
With orange tawny slime his beard;