The drums were silent, all the plain was dark;
Only against the far horizon loomed
The uneven outline of the distant hills.
He called his trusty troopers, and stole forth,
Hoping to pass the camp all unobserved;
But with that Host was one who loved him not,
His own Lieutenant, nephew to the King,
And higher in the soldiers’ hearts than he—
This man had dogged his path for many a day—
And when they came to the town’s outer gate,