THE HOUSE OF BROKEN SWORDS.
On one side marshes met the snarling sea,
And on the other, three gaunt mountain peaks
Shot up mid screaming eagles; and between,
Beetling above an inky tarn, upclomb
That hostelry.
Cloud-high it loomed and dark
As Amazonian forests. Far overhead
Its shadowy roof, sometimes was spindrift dim,
Sometimes was heaven, with lucent twilight skies
Besprent with stars; and round each echoing hall
From carven ambrys quaint, old storied arms
Blazoned the walls. There on Goliath's blade
Goliath's blood still rusted; there sea-born
Excalibur flaunted his wizard hilt.
And Soldan's yataghan and Richard's brand
Hung with the baton that in Caesar's grasp
Dispeopled nations.
But the loftiest nave
In that strange house was hung with broken swords,
Whereof the chiefest three had shields beneath,
Scrolled each with shining names. One shield was his
Who long time humbled Rome, and one. blood-red.
Recalled the Corsican; and last, a shield
Now wet with old men's tears, proclaimed the chief
Whose ramparts moulder mid Virginian pines.
Untenanted the place, to casual eyes.
And silent; but anon began afar
Onset of armed feet, and thunders rolled,
