At this, the challenger with fierce defy 580 His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply; With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky. Their vizors closed, their lances in the rest, Or at the helmet pointed, or the crest, They vanish from the barrier, speed the race, And spurring see decrease the middle space. A cloud of smoke envelops either host, And all at once the combatants are lost: Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen, Coursers with coursers jostling, men with men: 590 As labouring in eclipse, a while they stay, Till the next blast of wind restores the day. They look anew: the beauteous form of fight Is changed, and war appears a grisly sight. Two troops in fair array one moment show'd, The next, a field with fallen bodies strow'd: Not half the number in their seats are found; But men and steeds lie grovelling on the ground. The points of spears are stuck within the shield, The steeds without their riders scour the field. 600 The knights, unhorsed, on foot renew the fight; The glittering falchions cast a gleaming light: Hauberks and helms are hew'd with many a wound, Out spins the streaming blood and dyes the ground. The mighty maces with such haste descend, They break the bones, and make the solid armour bend. This thrusts amid the throng with furious force; Down goes, at once, the horseman and the horse: That courser stumbles on the fallen steed, And floundering throws the rider o'er his head. 610 One rolls along, a foot-ball to his foes; One with a broken truncheon deals his blows. This halting, this disabled with his wound, In triumph led, is to the pillar bound, Where by the king's award he must abide: There goes a captive led on the other side. By fits they cease; and leaning on the lance, Take breath a while, and to new fight advance. Full oft the rivals met, and neither spared His utmost force, and each forgot to ward. 620 The head of this was to the saddle bent, The other backward to the crupper sent: Both were by turns unhorsed; the jealous blows Fall thick and heavy, when on foot they close. So deep their falchions bite, that every stroke Pierced to the quick; and equal wounds they gave and took. Borne far asunder by the tides of men, Like adamant and steel they meet again. So when a tiger sucks the bullock's blood, A famish'd lion issuing from the wood 630 Roars lordly fierce, and challenges the food: Each claims possession, neither will obey, But both their paws are fasten'd on the prey; They bite, they tear; and while in vain they strive, The swains come arm'd between, and both to distance drive.