And to the altar and the hour at last,—
The hour, the altar, of his dear desires,—
Clear-shriven and whitely clad the youth was come.
II.
Full many a squire was in that household bred
To arms and honor and sweet courtesy,
Who wore that sojourn’s fragrant memory
As amulet in after-battles dread;
And meeting in kings’ houses joyously,
Or, wounded, in the sedge beside a lake,