His promise Palamon accepts; but prayed, To keep it better than the first he made. Thus fair they parted till the morrow's dawn; For each had laid his plighted faith to pawn; Oh Love! thou sternly dost thy power maintain, And wilt not bear a rival in thy reign! Tyrants and thou all fellowship disdain. This was in Arcite proved and Palamon: Both in despair, yet each would love alone. Arcite returned, and, as in honour tied, His foe with bedding and with food supplied; Then, ere the day, two suits of armour sought, Which borne before him on his steed he brought: Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure As might the strokes of two such arms endure. Now, at the time, and in the appointed place, The challenger and challenged, face to face, Approach; each other from afar they knew, And from afar their hatred changed their hue. So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear, Full in the gap, and hopes the hunted bear, And hears him rustling in the wood, and sees His course at distance by the bending trees: And thinks, Here comes my mortal enemy, And either he must fall in fight, or I: This while he thinks, he lifts aloft his dart; A generous chillness seizes every part, The veins pour back the blood, and fortify the heart. Thus pale they meet; their eyes with fury burn; None greets, for none the greeting will return; But in dumb surliness each armed with care His foe professed, as brother of the war; Then both, no moment lost, at once advance Against each other, armed with sword and lance: They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore Their corslets, and the thinnest parts explore. Thus two long hours in equal arms they stood, And wounded wound, till both are bathed in blood And not a foot of ground had either got, As if the world depended on the spot. Fell Arcite like an angry tiger fared, And like a lion Palamon appeared: Or, as two boars whom love to battle draws, With rising bristles and with frothy jaws, Their adverse breasts with tusks oblique they wound With grunts and groans the forest rings around. So fought the knights, and fighting must abide, Till Fate an umpire sends their difference to decide. The power that ministers to God's decrees, And executes on earth what Heaven foresees, Called Providence, or Chance, or Fatal sway, Comes with resistless force, and finds or makes her way. Nor kings, nor nations, nor united power One moment can retard the appointed hour, And some one day, some wondrous chance appears, Which happened not in centuries of years: For sure, whate'er we mortals hate or love Or hope or fear depends on powers above: They move our appetites to good or ill, And by foresight necessitate the will. In Theseus this appears, whose youthful joy Was beasts of chase in forests to destroy; This gentle knight, inspired by jolly May, Forsook his easy couch at early day,