Our Imaginary Conversations. 97 



My dagger with blood by my side doth flow, 

 My battle-axe hangs at my saddle-bow. 



A buckler sounds on his arm, and the light 

 Is red as the sun on a winter day ; 

 The war-horse champeth its curb of foam, 

 A gleamy smoke winds on his way, 

 As he gallopeth with a wild delight 



On the echoing ground " An Ottoman Knight," 



Turning to look, the gazers say. 



Let him be calm in eye, yet quick to ire, 

 The victory-crown'd in every warlike play, 

 Laughing to scorn the wisdom of the proud, 

 He knoweth not when morning shall decay, 

 When seas shall sweep along the desert red : 

 Let him be brave and young, and on his head 



Not wrinkles, but the scars of the affray. 



My dagger with blood by my side doth flow, 

 My battle-axe hangs at my saddle-bow. 



Behold him, chieftains gather'd from afar ! 

 The warrior in his power ! but he, whose pride 

 Palls at the first red sweep of Terror's car, 

 The last to the Ottoman camp to ride 

 Who, when the war hath burst the city gate, 

 Makes not, with all the treasury of state, 



His fill'd chariot bend from side to side. 



My dagger with' blood by my side doth- flow, 

 My battle-axe hangs at my saddle-bow. 



He who lingereth on a woman's sigh, 

 And in the feast of music and of wine, 

 LoVes not to tell his charger's ancestry ; 

 Who seeks save in himself a power divine, 

 Dreaming upon a couch of tissue rare, 

 A sickly student fearing sun and air, 



Leaving to Christian lips the Cypress wine. 



My dagger with blood by my side doth flow, 

 My battle-axe hangs at my saddle-bow. 



He 'tis a dastard, and no warrior bold ; 



Not him along the battle storm the eye 



Sees lifting on his steed, with trailing cloth of gold, 



The sabre in his hand, upon his stirrups towering high 



Away ! let his heels goad the aching sides 



Of a poor mule, and as he rides, 



Murmur a priestly formulary. 



My dagger with blood by my side doth flow, 

 My battle-axe hangs at my saddle-bow. 



M. M. New Series. VOL. XIV. No. 79. H 



