Or branches for their mystic emblems took,
  Of palm, of laurel, and of cerrial-oak. 
    Thus marching to the trumpet’s lofty sound,
  Drawn in two lines adverse they wheel’d around,
  And in the middle meadow took their ground. 
  Among themselves the tourney they divide,
  In equal squadrons ranged on either side. 
  Then turn’d their horses’ heads, and man to man, 290
  And steed to steed opposed, the jousts began. 
  They lightly set their lances in the rest,
  And, at the sign, against each other press’d: 
  They met.  I sitting at my ease beheld
  The mix’d events, and fortunes of the field. 
  Some broke their spears, some tumbled horse and man,
  And round the field the lighten’d coursers ran. 
  An hour and more, like tides, in equal sway
  They rush’d, and won by turns, and lost the day: 
  At length the nine (who still together held) 300
  Their fainting foes to shameful flight compell’d,
  And with resistless force o’er-ran the field. 
  Thus, to their fame, when finish’d was the fight,
  The victors from their lofty steeds alight: 
  Like them dismounted all the warlike train,
  And two by two proceeded o’er the plain,
  Till to the fair assembly they advanced,
  Who near the secret arbour sung and danced.

    The ladies left their measures at the sight,
  To meet the chiefs returning from the fight, 310
  And each with open arms embraced her chosen knight. 
  Amid the plain a spreading laurel stood,
  The grace and ornament of all the wood: 
  That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat
  From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat: 
  Her leafy arms with such extent were spread. 
  So near the clouds was her aspiring head,
  That hosts of birds, that wing the liquid air,
  Perch’d in the boughs, had nightly lodging there: 
  And flocks of sheep beneath the shade from far 320
  Might hear the rattling hail, and wintry war;
  From heaven’s inclemency here found retreat,
  Enjoy’d the cool, and shunn’d the scorching heat: 
  A hundred knights might there at ease abide;
  And every knight a lady by his side: 
  The trunk itself such odours did bequeath,
  That a Moluccan[77] breeze to these was common breath. 
  The lords and ladies here, approaching, paid
  Their homage, with a low obeisance made;
  And seem’d to venerate the sacred shade. 330
  These rites perform’d, their pleasures they pursue,
  With song of love, and mix with measures new;
  Around the holy tree their dance they frame,
  And every champion leads his chosen dame.

    I cast my sight upon the farther field,
  And a fresh object of delight beheld: 
  For from the region of the West I heard
  New music sound, and a new troop appear’d;
  Of knights and ladies mix’d, a jolly band,
  But all on foot they march’d, and hand in hand. 340