He spoke, and frown’d; and Gudurz turned, and ran
  Back quickly through the camp in fear and joy,
  Fear at his wrath, but joy that Rustum came,
  But Rustum strode to his tent door, and call’d 260
  His followers in, and bade them bring his arms,
  And clad himself in steel:  the arms he chose
  Were plain, and on his shield was no device,
  Only his helm was rich, inlaid with gold
  And from the fluted spine[25] atop a plume 265
  Of horsehair wav’d, a scarlet horsehair plume. 
  So arm’d, he issued forth; and Ruksh, his horse,
  Followed him, like a faithful hound, at heel,
  Ruksh, whose renown was nois’d through all the earth,
  The horse, whom Rustum on a foray once 270
  Did in Bokhara by the river find,
  A colt beneath its dam, and drove him home,
  And rear’d him; a bright bay, with lofty crest;
  Dight[26] with a saddle-cloth of broider’d green
  Crusted with gold, and on the ground were work’d 275
  All beasts of chase, all beasts which hunters know: 
  So follow’d, Rustum left his tents, and cross’d
  The camp, and to the Persian host appear’d. 
  And all the Persians knew him, and with shouts
  Hail’d; but the Tartars knew not who he was. 280
  And dear as the wet diver to the eyes
  Of his pale wife who waits and weeps on shore,
  By sandy Bahrein,[27] in the Persian Gulf,
  Plunging all day in the blue waves, at night,
  Having made up his tale[28] of precious pearls, 285
  Rejoins her in their hut upon the sands—–­
  So dear to the pale Persians Rustum came.

[Rustum advances; warns Sohrab.  Sohrab is young; why should he court defeat and death?]

  And Rustum to the Persian front advanc’d,
  And Sohrab arm’d in Haman’s tent, and came. 
  And as afield the reapers cut a swathe 290
  Down through the middle of a rich man’s corn,
  And on each side are squares of standing corn,
  And in the midst a stubble, short and bare;
  So on each side were squares of men, with spears
  Bristling, and in the midst, the open sand. 295
  And Rustum came upon the sand, and cast
  His eyes towards the Tartar tents, and saw
  Sohrab come forth, and ey’d him as he came.

  As some rich woman, on a winter’s morn,
  Eyes through her silken curtains the poor drudge 300
  Who with numb blacken’d fingers makes her fire—­
  At cock-crow, on a starlit winter’s morn,
  When the frost flowers the whiten’d window panes—­
  And wonders how she lives, and what the thoughts
  Of that poor drudge may be; so Rustum ey’d 305
  The unknown adventurous youth, who from afar
  Came seeking Rustum, and defying forth
  All the most valiant chiefs:  long he perus’d[29]