to hand. 
  Speak not to me of truce, and pledge, and wine! 
  Remember all thy valour:  try thy feints
  And cunning:  all the pity I had is gone: 
  Because thou hast sham’d me before both the hosts 465
  With thy light skipping tricks, and thy girl’s wiles.”

  He spoke; and Sohrab kindled at his taunts,
  And he too drew his sword:  at once they rush’d
  Together, as two eagles on one prey
  Come rushing down together from the clouds, 470
  One from the east, one from the west:  their shields
  Dash’d with a clang together, and a din
  Rose, such as that the sinewy woodcutters
  Make often, in the forest’s heart at morn,
  Of hewing axes, crashing trees:  such blows 475
  Rustum and Sohrab on each other hail’d. 
  And you would say that sun and stars took part
  In that unnatural conflict; for a cloud
  Grew suddenly in heaven, and dark’d the sun
  Over the fighters’ heads; and a wind rose 480
  Under their feet, and moaning swept the plain,
  And in a sandy whirlwind wrapp’d the pair. 
  In gloom they twain were wrapp’d, and they alone;
  For both the on-looking hosts on either hand
  Stood in broad daylight, and the sky was pure, 485
  And the sun sparkled on the Oxus stream. 
  But in the gloom they fought, with bloodshot eyes
  And labouring breath; first Rustum struck the shield
  Which Sohrab held stiff out:  the steel-spik’d spear
  Rent the tough plates, but failed to reach the skin, 490
  And Rustum pluck’d it back with angry groan. 
  Then Sohrab with his sword smote Rustum’s helm,
  Nor clove its steel quite through; but all the crest
  He shore away, and that proud horsehair plume,
  Never till now defil’d, sunk to the dust; 495
  And Rustum bow’d his bead; but then the gloom
  Grew blacker:  thunder rumbled in the air,
  And lightnings rent the cloud; and Ruksh, the horse,
  Who stood at hand, utter’d a dreadful cry: 
  No horse’s cry was that, most like the roar 500
  Of some pain’d desert lion, who all day
  Has trail’d the hunter’s javelin in his side,
  And comes at night to die upon the sand:—­
  The two hosts heard that cry, and quak’d for fear,
  And Oxus curdled as it cross’d his stream. 505
  But Sohrab heard, and quail’d not, but rush’d on,
  And struck again; and again Rustum bow’d
  His head; but this time all the blade, like glass,
  Sprang in a thousand shivers on the helm,
  And in his hand the hilt remain’d alone. 510
  Then, Rustum rais’d his head:  his dreadful eyes
  Glar’d, and he shook on high his menacing spear,
  And shouted, Rustum!  Sohrab heard that shout,
  And shrank amaz’d:  back he recoil’d one step,
  And scann’d with blinking eyes the