Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/425
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KING STEPHEN.
409
How like a comet he goes streaming on.But we must plague him in the flank,—hey, friends?We are well breath'd,—follow!
Enter Earl Baldwin and Soldiers, as defeated.
Stephen.De Redvers!What is the monstrous bugbear that can fright Baldwin?
Baldwin. No scare-crow, but the fortunate starOf boisterous Chester, whose fell truncheon nowPoints level to the goal of victory.This way he comes, and if you would maintainYour person unaffronted by vile odds,Take horse, my Lord.
Stephen.And which way spur for life?Now I thank Heaven I am in the toils,That soldiers may bear witness how my armCan burst the meshes. Not the eagle moreLoves to beat up against a tyrannous blast,Than I to meet the torrent of my foes.This is a brag,—be't so,—but if I fall,Carve it upon my 'scutcheon'd sepulchre.On, fellow soldiers! Earl of Redvers, back!Not twenty Earls of Chester shall browbeat[Exeunt. Alarum.The diadem.
Scene II.—Another part of the field.
Trumpets sounding a Victory. Enter Glocester, Knights, and Forces.
Glocester. Now may we lift our bruised visors up,And take the flattering freshness of the air,While the wide din of battle dies away