LEON
Now men he hated, but his mother’s love
Spake for the Queen, and, leaping on those churls,
With unmail’d hands he smote at them, so sore,
So sudden, that their coward’s valour slunk
For hiding to their heels. “A pouncing beast!”
One cried; the other, “Mercy!” and they fled.
Then the Queen stood upright, and from her face,
Panting, drew down the veil. He knew her not,
But she was Morgan, the great wizard Queen,
And she knew him, and (for she ow’d him thanks,
And therewith ever loved a goodly face)
Cast spells for him; so, as it were a film
Cover’d her eyes, her voice brake out in gasps,
And as a rime-bound branch upstanding stiff,
“Good cheer,” she said, “Sir Leon! From the sea
Comes Venus, and the daughter of a king.
Look clear, speak loud, bow low; thou shalt wed high.”
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