Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/283

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BOOK THE EIGHTH.
271
Frequent in fields of battle, and from farTo many a good Knight, bearing his death woundFrom hands unknown. With such an instrument, 200Arm'd on the ramparts, Glacidas his eyeCast on the assailing host. A keener glanceDarts not the hawk when from the feather'd tribeHe marks his victim.On a Frank he fix'd His gaze, who kneeling by the trebuchet,[1] 205Charged its long sling with death. Him Glacidas Secure behind the battlements, beheld, And strung his bow; then, bending on one knee, He in the groove the feather'd quarrel[2] plac'd And levelling with firm eye, the death-wound mark'd. 210 The bow-string twang'd—on its swift way the dart

Whizzed

  1. ↑ Line 205. From the trebuchet they discharged many stones at once by a sling. It acted by means of a great weight fastened to the short arm of a lever, which being let fall, raised the end of the long arm with a great velocity. A man is represented kneeling to load one of these in an ivory carving, supposed to be of the age of Edward II. Grose.
  2. ↑ Line 209. Quarrels, or carreaux, were so called from their heads, which were square pyramids of iron.
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