Worthier they those dames who, fable Says, rode “palfreys” to the war With gigantic Thanes, whose “sable Destriers caracoled” before; Smiled, as—springing from the war-horse As men spring in modern ‘cirques’— They plunged, ponderous as a four-horse Coach, among the vanished Turks:— In the good times when the jester Asked the monarch how he was, And the landlady addrest her Guests as ‘gossip’ or as ‘coz’; When the Templar said, “Gramercy,” Or, “’Twas shrewdly thrust, i’ fegs,” To Sir Halbert or Sir Percy As they knocked him off his legs: And, by way of mild reminders That he needed coin, the Knight Day by day extracted grinders From the howling Israelite: And _my whole_ in merry Sherwood Sent, with preterhuman luck, Missiles—not of steel but firwood— Thro’ the two-mile-distant buck. IV. EVENING threw soberer hue Over the blue sky, and the few Poplars that grew just in the view Of the hall of Sir Hugo de Wynkle: “Answer me true,” pleaded Sir Hugh, (Striving to woo no matter who,) “What shall I do, Lady, for you? ’Twill be done, ere your eye may twinkle. Shall I borrow the wand of a Moorish enchanter, And bid a decanter contain the Levant, or The brass from the face of a Mormonite ranter? Shall I go for the mule of the Spanish Infantar— (That _r_, for the sake of the line, we must grant her,)— And race with the foul fiend, and beat in a canter, Like that first of equestrians Tam o’ Shanter? I talk not mere banter—say not that I can’t, or By this _my first_—(a Virginia planter Sold it me to kill rats)—I will die instanter.” The Lady bended her ivory neck, and Whispered mournfully, “Go for—_my second_.” She said, and the red from Sir Hugh’s cheek fled, And “Nay,” did he say, as he stalked away The fiercest of injured men: “Twice have I humbled my haughty soul, And on bended knee I have pressed _my whole_— But I never will press it again!” V. ON pinnacled St. Mary’s Lingers the setting sun; Into the street the blackguards Are skulking one by one: Butcher and Boots and Bargeman Lay pipe and pewter down; And with wild shout come tumbling out To join the Town and Gown. And now the undergraduates Come forth by twos and threes, From the broad tower of Trinity, From the green gate of Caius: The wily bargeman marks them, And swears to do his worst; To turn to impotence their strength, And their beauty to _my first_.