The pride of eye, the majesty of mien, 40 The front erect that looks upon the star: While round each neck the twisted chains are seen Of Teuton chiefs;--(and signs of chiefs they are In Cymrian lands--where still the torque of gold[11] Or decks the highborn or rewards the bold). Stern Lancelot frown'd; for in those sturdy forms 41 The Christian Knight the Saxon foemen fear'd. "Why come ye hither?--nor compell'd by storms, Nor proffering barter?" As he spoke they near'd The noble knight;--and thus the elder said, "Nought save his heart the Aleman hath led! "Ere more I answer, say if this the shore, 42 And thou the friend, of him who owns the dove? Arthur the king,--who taught us to adore By the man's deeds the God whose creed is love?" Then Lancelot answer'd, with a moistening eye, "Arthur's true knight and lealest friend am I." With that, he leapt from selle to clasp the hand 43 Of him who honour'd thus the absent one: And now behold them seated on the sand, Frank faces smiling in the cordial sun; The absent, there, seem'd present: to unite, In loving bonds, his converts and his knight. Then told the Aleman the tale by song 44 Already told--and we resume its flow Where the mild hero charm'd the stormy throng And twined the arm that shelter'd, round his foe: Not meanly conquer'd but sublimely won-- Stern Harold vail'd his plume to Uther's son. The Saxon troop resought the Vandal king, 45 And Arthur sojourn'd with the savage race: More easy such rude proselytes to bring To Christian truth, than, in the wonderous place Where now he rests, proud Wisdom he shall find! For heaven dawns clearest on the simplest mind. But when his cause of wrong the Cymrian show'd; 46 The heathen foe--the carnage-crimson'd fields; With one fierce impulse those fierce converts glow'd, And their wild war-howl chimed with clashing shields But Arthur wisely shunn'd that last appeal Of falling states,--the stranger's fatal steel. Yet to the chief (for there at least no fear) 47 And his two sons, a slow consent he gave: Show'd by the prince the stars by which to steer, They hew'd a pine and launch'd it on the wave; Bringing rough forms but dauntless hearts to swell The force that guards the fates of Carduel. The story heard, the son of royal BAN[12] 48 Questions the paths to which the King was led. "Know," answered Faul (so hight the Aleman), "That, in our father's days, our warriors spread O'er lands wherein eternal summer dwells, Beyond the snow-storm's siegeless pinnacles;