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| THE HUNTERS were up in the light of the morn, | |
| High on the clear air their banners were borne; | |
| And the steeds that they mounted were bright to behold | |
| With housings that glittered in silver and gold. | |
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| Proud at their head rode the chief of Lahore. | 5 |
| A dagger that shone with the ruby, he wore; | |
| And Inde and Bokhara and Iran supplied | |
| The dogs, stanch and gallant, that coursed at his side. | |
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| He wears the green robe of the Prophet’s high line, | |
| He is sprung from the chieftain of Mecca’s far shrine; | 10 |
| His horse, on whose bridle the white pearls are sown, | |
| Has a lineage as distant and pure as his own. | |
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| His falconers are round him, a bird on each hand,— | |
| No Norman from Norway ere brought such a band, | |
| So strong is each wing, so dark is each eye | 15 |
| That flings back the light it has learnt in the sky. | |
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| In vain from the chase of that gallant array | |
| The wild boar will hide in the forest to-day; | |
| In vain will the tiger spring forth from its gloom, | |
| He springs on the sabre that beareth his doom. | 20 |
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| On, on through the greenwoods that girdle the pass, | |
| The sun and the dew are alike on the grass; | |
| On, on, till by moonlight the gathering be | |
| Of the hunters that rest by the banyan-tree. | |
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