And there against them riding came
Fleet as the lightning's laugh and flame
The invisible evil, even the same
They sought and might not curse by name
⁠As hell's foul child on earth set free,
And smote the strange knight through, and fled,
And left the mourners by the dead.
'Alas, again,' Sir Balen said,
⁠'This wrong he hath done to me.'

And there they laid their dead to sleep
Royally, lying where wild winds keep
Keen watch and wail more soft and deep
Than where men's choirs bid music weep
⁠And song like incense heave and swell.
And forth again they rode, and found
Before them, dire in sight and sound,
A castle girt about and bound
⁠With sorrow like a spell.