Noiseless as sleep and subtle as the frost,

Poised like a light and borne as carefully,

She trod the gusty hall where shadowy

The hangings rolled a dim Pendragon war.

And there the mail of Urience shone. A star,

Glimmering above, a dying cresset dropped

From the stone vault and flared. And here she stopped,

And took the sword, fresh-burnished by his page,

Long as a flame of pale, arrested rage.—

For she had thought that, when they found him dead,