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The Duel

      "I am here to time, you see;
The glade is well-screened--eh?--against alarm;
   Fit place to vindicate by my arm
   The honour of my spotless wife,
   Who scorns your libel upon her life
      In boasting intimacy!
      "'All hush-offerings you'll spurn,
My husband.  Two must come; one only go,'
   She said.  'That he'll be you I know;
   To faith like ours Heaven will be just,
   And I shall abide in fullest trust
      Your speedy glad return.'"
   "Good.  Here am also I;
And we'll proceed without more waste of words
   To warm your cockpit.  Of the swords
   Take you your choice.  I shall thereby
   Feel that on me no blame can lie,
      Whatever Fate accords."
   So stripped they there, and fought,
And the swords clicked and scraped, and the onsets sped;
   Till the husband fell; and his shirt was red
   With streams from his heart's hot cistern.  Nought
   Could save him now; and the other, wrought
      Maybe to pity, said:
   "Why did you urge on this?
Your wife assured you; and 't had better been
   That you had let things pass, serene
   In confidence of long-tried bliss,
   Holding there could be nought amiss
      In what my words might mean."
   Then, seeing nor ruth nor rage
Could move his foeman more--now Death's deaf thrall -
   He wiped his steel, and, with a call
   Like turtledove to dove, swift broke
   Into the copse, where under an oak
      His horse cropt, held by a page.
   "All's over, Sweet," he cried
To the wife, thus guised; for the young page was she.
   "'Tis as we hoped and said 't would be.
   He never guessed . . . We mount and ride
   To where our love can reign uneyed.
      He's clay, and we are free."

Literature Network » Thomas Hardy » Moments of Vision » The Duel