Did I not watch him while he let
His armourer just brace his greaves,
Rivet his hauberk, on the fret
The while! His foot . . . my memory leaves
No least stamp out, nor how anon
He pulled his ringing gauntlets on."
Before the trumpet's peal had died, the false knight lay, "prone as his lie," upon the ground; and Gismond flew at him, and drove his sword into the breast—
"Cleaving till out the truth he clove.
Which done, he dragged him to my feet
And said 'Here die, but end thy breath
In full confession, lest thou fleet
From my first, to God's second death!
Say, hast thou lied?' And, 'I have lied
To God and her,' he said, and died."
Then Gismond knelt and said to her words which even to this dear friend she could not repeat. She sank on his breast—
"Over my head his arm he flung
Against the world . . ."
—and then and there the two walked forth, amid the shouting multitude, never more to return. "And so they were married, and lived happy ever after."
Gaiety, courage, trust: in this nameless Browning heroine we find the characteristic marks. On that birthday morning, almost her greatest joy was in the sense of her cousins' love—
"I thought they loved me, did me grace
To please themselves; 'twas all their deed"