Henceforth impatient ups and downs possessed us. Asiatic towns Flamed to the general vision. We heard less perhaps of heavenly crowns Than flowers and peacocks made of gems, the Caliph's crusted diadems That crushed the head like Guthlac's bell, and trees with solid emerald stems. And I confess Christ counted less to us than tales of leash and gess, Or Hárún-el-Rashíd's largesse that sent the clock to Charlemagne. We practised sums, and tried to train our cavalry in loss and gain. Upon the misty wizard-world rose like a star the money-brain. Even monks planned theft of saintly scalps; stray hairs and chips of nail and chine, Divinely shielded through the Alps, would make the fortune of the Rhine. I often tried to hide myself from this besetting spook of pelf. In olive-groves I called in vain to simple faun and acorn-elf. I pictured kine that kissed their own reflections on the impulsive Rhone, A little maid with sunflower hair, a nest we found ... the birds had flown. I think Alexius was wise to keep us out. Our hungry eyes Fixed on his capital. Why go farther when here were rich supplies? The Pope that cursed our tastes had laid the hand of blessing on this raid. Blest chance indeed--as though a man should drink his fill and then be paid! Each set to whet his falchion-pet that only friends had tasted yet. We dressed our hopes in purple silk, wallowed in dreamland's wine and milk. Yet more than any Sultan's spoil fair women should repay our toil. Already some were filled with thoughts that our red cross was meant to foil. The notion twinged us. We compared our prospects with the way we fared On these lean suburbs and the flats about Barbyses. We were snared! The very Greeks, whose prayers had lured us into this adventure, lodged Their saviours in a baited trap. Lord, how these foxes turned and dodged. There lay our army like a log; our camp, our tenets, turned to bog. We sank. Disorder brought disease that stalked us spectral through the fog.