Then out spake the Duchess sadly, 'Alone with my lord I fare, But yet that may little serve thee, nor shall victory be here thy share.' And in rags was all her vesture, and naught but the hem untorn, Yet the crown of woman's honour in her poverty had she worn, 580 And her ways were ways of goodness, and falsehood afar had fled-- Then he bound afresh his visor and the helmet upon his head As one who to battle rideth--Then his charger aloft would rear, It was 'ware of the steed beside it, and its neigh rang out loud and clear; And he who a space before them on the woodland way would ride, 585 He hearkened the sound, and would see him who rode there by his lady's side. Then he turned his bridle wrathful by the side of the narrow way, And with lance in rest for jousting Duke Orilus rode that day, And manly, I ween, his bearing, from Gaheviess came his spear, And weapon alike and harness of one colour were blazoned clear. 590 His helmet, Trebuchet wrought it; the shield in distant Spain Was welded fair for the hero, King Kailet in that land doth reign, And strong were the rim and the centre--In Alexandria's city fair Was the costly pfellel woven that for surcoat and coat he ware. The covering of his charger at Tenabroc was it made 595 Of rings of steel close welded--And thus he his pride displayed, For over the iron cover lay a pfellel so fair to see, And all men who saw bare witness that costly its worth must be-- And gorget, and greaves, and headgear, tho' rich, yet their weight was light, And many a plate of iron it guarded this gallant knight; 600 In Beàlzenan was it fashioned, chief city of fair Anjou. (But she who rode bare behind him far other her garb to view, For in sooth might she find none better) from Soissons his breastplate came, But he won his gallant charger from the far-off lake Brimbane, In the mountains of Monsalväsch--Lähelein, his brother bold, 605 In a joust o'erthrew the rider, and the steed as his prize would hold.