294 MORRIS
They raise no cry of battle nor cast forth threat of
woe, And their helmed and hidden faces from each other
none may know : Then a light in the hall ariseth, and the fire of
battle runs All adown the front of the Niblungs in the face of
the mighty-ones; All eyes are set upon them, hard drawn is every
breath, Ere the foremost points be mingled and death be
blent with death. All eyes save the eyes of Hogni; but e'en as the
edges meet, He turneth about for a moment to the gold of the
kingly seat, Then aback to the front of battle; there then, as
the lightning-flash Through the dark night showeth the city when the
clouds of heaven clash, And the gazer shrinketh backward, yet he seeth
from end to end The street and the merry market, and the windows
of his friend, And the pavement where his footsteps yester'en
returning trod, Now white and changed and dreadful 'neath the
threatening voice of God; So Hogni seeth Gudrun, and the face he used to
know,
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