Bound after bound, with eager springs, she clear'd each massive stone;—
Nine mortal leaps were pass'd before a huge gray rock at length
Stood planted there as if to dare her utmost pitch of strength—
My time was come! that granite heap my monument of death!
She paused, she snorted loud and long, and drew a fuller breath;
Nine strides and then a louder beat that warn'd me of her spring,
I felt her rising in the air like eagle on the wing—
But oh! the crash!—the hideous shock!—the million sparks around!
Her hindmost hoofs had struck the crest of that prodigious mound!
Wild shriek'd the headlong Desert-Born—or else 'twas demon's mirth,