"THERE'S nothing in the world so dear To a true knight," he cried, "As his own sister's honour! Now God be on our side!" The walls of Alexandria That stand so broad and high, The walls of Alexandria They answered to his cry. And thrice, his trumpets blaring, He rides around those walls; "Come forth, ye knights of Lombardy, Ye craven knights!" he calls. O luckless Count of Armanac, Why rode ye forth at noon? Was there no hour at even? No morning cool and boon? The swords of Alexandria You kept them all at bay. But oh, the summer sun at noon It strikes more deep than they. Oh for a drink of water! Oh for a moment's space To loose the iron helm and let The wind blow on his face! He turned his eyes from left to right, And at his hand there stood The shivering white poplars That fringe a little wood. And as he reeled along the grass, Behold, as chill as ice The water ran beneath his foot, And he thought it Paradise. "Armanac! O Armanac!" His distant knights rang out; And "Armanac" there answered them The mountains round about. O luckless Count of Armanac, The day is lost and won: Your hosts fight ill without a chief, And the foe is three to one. At dusk there rides a Lombard squire, With his train, into the copse, And when they reach the water-side The horse whinnies and stops. For dead beside the white water A fallen knight they find; His helmet lies upon the grass, His locks stir in the wind. "Now speak a word, my prisoners! What great captain is he Who died away from battle Alone and piteously?" Woe! and woe for Armanac, And woe for all of us, And for his sister's honour, woe, That he be fallen thus! For "where's the Count of Armanac?" The Lombard women sing: "He died at Alexandria -- Of the water of a spring!" Thy name is made a mock, my Lord, Thy vengeance still to pay, And we must pine in Lombardy For many and many a day! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CHOIRMASTER'S BURIAL by THOMAS HARDY LUCASIA, ROSANIA, AND ORINDA PARTING AT A FOUNTAIN by KATHERINE PHILIPS ON SOME BUTTERCUPS by FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN TO ANACREON by ANTIPATER OF SIDON EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 5. BY LITTLE AND LITTLE by PHILIP AYRES ON THE DEATH OF MR. WOODWARD, AT EDINBURGH by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD LYNTON VERSES: 5 by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN KING VICTOR EMANUEL ENTERS FLORENCE, APRIL, 1860 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |