And in the silent courtyard made

Each door and arch an ambuscade;{11}

{11}

And passing through our sleeping camp

We heard the stabled horses champ,

And started as a halter whirred

Along the chain rings when they stirred.

Then, with our day’s adventures o’er,

Safe housed, we heard the muffled roar

Of winds without, and round the fire

Sought for the land of heart’s desire,

Or sailed across the Spanish main

In well-loved books; or lived again

In knightly days of long ago,

And heard the horn of Ivanhoe

At Ashby lists; or, on his steed

At Acre, saw King Richard lead

His pilgrim soldiers, worn and thin,

That broke the ranks of Saladin:—

Till, in the thickest of some fight,{12}

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