Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/271

Or stay its course, and thus be able,
Honour attained, to keep him stable?7000
| And dost thou aught of logic know
(Which falsity from truth doth show),
Thou’lt see, where great and strong men fall,
For poor and weak, the chance how small!
Manfred of Sicily But if examples thou shouldst scorn
From old authentic writings torn,
Then is it well that thou shouldst learn
That if thou wilt, thou need’st but turn
For good examples which have been
Before the eyes of all men seen,7010
Writ large for us in later days.
Of turmoils, battles, and affrays.
In Sicily we first may see
Lord Manfred, who by treachery
Long time unchallenged kept the land,
Till Charles of Anjou’s mighty hand
O’ercame him, and there reigns to-day,
Where no man dares dispute his sway.
Him thou mayst better know perchance
As Count of Anjou and Provence,7020
And who by providence of God
Is lord of Sicily’s fair sod.
This good King Charles from Manfred took
His kingdom not alone, but strook
The life from him; when he, with sword
Fine tempered, on the battle sward
Where first they met assailed him; high
On towering war-horse mounted: ‘Die,’
He cried, ‘shalt thou, for check and mate
I give thee,’ but soon met his fate,7030