130
IVANHOE.
CHAPTER VIII.
Knights, with a long retinue of their squires,
In gaudy liveries march and quaint attires;
One laced the helm, another held the lance,
A third the shining buckler did advance.
The courser paw'd the ground with restless feet,
And snorting foam'd and champ'd the golden bit.
The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride,
Files in their hands, and hammers at their side;
And nails for loosen'd spears, and thongs for shields provide.
The yeoman guard the streets in seemly bands;
And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands.
Palamon and Arcite.
The condition of the English nation was at
this time sufficiently miserable. King Richard
was absent a prisoner, and in the power of the
perfidious and cruel Duke of Austria. Even
the very place of his captivity was uncertain,
and his fate but very imperfectly known to the
generality of his subjects, who were, in the mean
time, a prey to every species of subaltern oppression.