Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/307

(He set a spell upon the maid in woodlands long ago,
⁠A hunter by the Tapti banks, she gave him water there:
He turned her heart to water, and she followed to her woe.
⁠What need had he of Lalun who had twenty maids as fair?)

Now in that hour strength left my lord; he wrenched his mare aside;
⁠He bound the girl behind him and we slashed and struggled free.
Across the reeling wreck of strife we rode as shadows ride
⁠From Paniput to Delhi town, but not alone were we.

'T was Lutif-Ullah Populzai laid horse upon our track,
⁠A swine-fed reiver of the North that lusted for the maid;
I might have barred his path awhile, but Scindia called me back,
⁠And I—O woe for Scindia!—I listened and obeyed.

League after league the formless scrub took shape and glided by—
⁠League after league the white road swirled behind the white mare's feet—
League after league, when leagues were done, we heard the Populzai,
⁠Where sure as Time and swift as Death the tireless footfall beat.

Noon's eye beheld that shame of flight; the shadows fell, we fled
⁠Where steadfast as the wheeling kite he followed in our train;
The black wolf warred where we had warred, the jackal mocked our dead,
⁠And terror born of twilight-tide made mad the labouring brain.