“Oh for a knight like Bayard,
Without reproach or fear!
My light glove on his casque of steel,
My love-knot on his spear!”
Then I said, my own heart throbbing
To the time her proud pulse beat,
“Life hath its regal natures yet,—
True, tender, brave, and sweet!
“Smile not, fair unbeliever!
One man at least I know
Who might wear the crest of Bayard,
Or Sidney’s plume of snow.
“Once, when over purple mountains
Died away the Grecian sun,
And the far Cyllenian ranges
Paled and darkened one by one,—
“Fell the Turk, a bolt of thunder,
Cleaving all the quiet sky;
And against his sharp steel lightnings
Stood the Suliote but to die.
“Woe for the weak and halting!
The crescent blazed behind
A curving line of sabres
Like fire before the wind!
“Last to fly and first to rally,
Rode he of whom I speak,
When, groaning in his bridle-path,
Sank down a wounded Greek.—
“With the rich Albanian costume
Wet with many a ghastly stain,
Gazing on earth and sky as one
Who might not gaze again!
“He looked forward to the mountains,
Back on foes that never spare;
Then flung him from his saddle,
And placed the stranger there.
“‘Alla! hu!’ Through flashing sabres,
Through a stormy hail of lead,
The good Thessalian charger
Up the slopes of olives sped.