The heavens were rent, each side the lightnings flash’d,
And clouds with hideous claps did thundering roar.
The armies, all aghast, did senseless stand,
Mistrusting much both force, and foes, and fates;
’Twas hard to say which of the two appall’d
Them most, the monstrous air or too much fear.
When Arthur spied his soldiers thus amaz’d,
And hope extinct, and deadly dread drawn on:
My mates (quoth he) the gods do scour the skies,
The fates contend to work some strange event,