Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Walter Herries Pollock b. 1850

A Conquest

I FOUND him openly wearing her token;

I knew that her troth could never be broken;

I laid my hand on the hilt of my sword,—

He did the same, and he spoke no word;

I faced him with his villainy;

He laughed, and said, “She gave it me.”

We searched for seconds, they soon were found;

They measured our swords; they measured the ground;

They held to the deadly work too fast;

They thought to gain our place at last.

We fought in the sheen of a wintry wood;

The fair white snow was red with his blood;

But his was the victory, for, as he died,

He swore by the rood that he had not lied.