And his faltering hand could not grasp it well—

From the pale oak-wreath, with a clash it fell

Through the chamber of the dead!

The deep tomb rang with the heavy sound,

And the urn lay shiver’d in fragments round;

And a rush, as of tempests, quench’d the fire,

And the scatter’d dust of his warlike sire

Was strewn on the champion’s head.

One moment—and all was still

In the slumberer’s ancient hall,