So proudly uprose the fortress that never did Carthage seem 25 So fair to the eyes of Æneas, when Dido, as failed her dream Of love, turned to death and, seeking, found rest in his cold embrace. Would ye know what countless turrets those stately halls did grace? Scarce more had Akraton boasted, that city whose walls so wide, An man may believe the heathen, with Babylon only vied; 30 So high rose the circling ramparts, and where to the sea they fell No storm might they fear, but defiance could they bid to their foes right well. 'Fore the city a plain outstretching lay fair for a mile or more. As Sir Gawain rode across it, five hundred knights he saw, Yet one, o'er all the others, gallant and fair to sight; 35 Gaily they rode towards him all clad in raiment bright, For so the venture telleth--With their falcons soaring high Would they chase the crane, or other fair game that should wingèd fly. A tall steed from Spain's far kingdom, King Vergulacht bestrode, And his glance was as day in the night-time--Aforetime his race abode 40 Where Mazadan reigned as monarch, by Fay Morgan's mystic mount, And amid the roll of his fathers he many a fay might count-- And even as in the spring-tide the May blossom bloometh fair So rode the king in his beauty, and Gawain he bethought him there, As he saw him ride so stately, 'twas another Parzival, 45 Or Gamuret, as he came to Kanvoleis, as this venture erewhile did tell. Now into a pond so marshy a heron had taken flight As it fled from before the falcon, and the king, as beseemed a knight, Sought not for the ford but followed as he saw his falcon's need, And wet he won in the aiding, and lost was his gallant steed, 50 And lost too his royal raiment, tho' safe was I ween the bird. The falconers took his garments, for this, so the tale I've heard, Was their right, and they needs must have them, and no man might say them nay. Another horse they brought him, for lost was his own for aye, And fresh garments they put upon him, since such was the chance of fate 55 That his falconers won the vesture that had decked their king of late.