Was half so still as I, who gauntly stole

Behind him, humped and stooping; and his heart

Clove to the center, stabbing from behind,

Thrice thro' his tattered tunic, murrey-dyed.

Forward he fell, his old face 'mid his gold,

Grayer and thinner than the moon of morn,

While slow the blood dripped, oozing through the cloth,

Black, and thick-clotting round the oblong wounds.

Great pearls of Oman, whiter than the moon;

Rubies of Badakhshân, whose bezels wept