IX.

The monarch’s form was middle size: For feat of strength or exercise Shaped in proportion fair; And hazel was his eagle eye, And auburn of the darkest dye His short curled beard and hair. Light was his footstep in the dance, And firm his stirrup in the lists: And, oh! he had that merry glance That seldom lady’s heart resists. Lightly from fair to fair he flew, And loved to plead, lament, and sue— Suit lightly won and short-lived pain, For monarchs seldom sigh in vain. I said he joyed in banquet bower; But, ’mid his mirth, ’twas often strange How suddenly his cheer would change, His look o’ercast and lower, If, in a sudden turn, he felt The pressure of his iron belt, That bound his breast in penance pain, In memory of his father slain. Even so ’twas strange how, evermore, Soon as the passing pang was o’er Forward he rushed, with double glee, Into the stream of revelry: Thus dim-seen object of affright Startles the courser in his flight, And half he halts, half springs aside; But feels the quickening spur applied, And, straining on the tightened rein, Scours doubly swift o’er hill and plain.