“Pardon, my lord, your charger black
You will not fight upon.
“Within the royal stables stand
Three steeds, and from the three
One must you choose: pray listen to
A secret thing from me.
I learnt it from an ancient clerk,
Right holy, sooth, was he,
A man of good and saintly ways,
If any such there be.
“Do not thou take the charger white,
Nor yet take thou the bay,
But the black steed between them both
Take forth and lead away;
For that the king’s own Moor himself
Hath tamed with his own hand:
Trust me, and mount it when you go
The giant to withstand.
“And when into the royal hall
The Moor shall enter, he