Classic Poem

" Now who will carry the gate with me? "
Fernando del Pulgar cried:
" Carry and hold it safe, while I
To the church of Mahomet ride? "

Fifteen stalwarts of old Castile
At the side of the hero strode.
They carried the gate, and in at the gap
Fernando del Pulgar rode.

He clove and shattered a helm or twain,
And gathered his reins and sprang,
And far and away in the silent night
The hoofs of his courser rang.

Fernando del Pulgar, sword and shield,
Helmet and hauberk too —
Through the startled streets of Mahomet's town
The sparks from the pavement flew.

On like the hurricane wind he rode,
With thunder of saddle and steel:
At the front of the proudest mosque drew up
With a crashing sweep and wheel:

And, " Ave Maria, " high aloft
To the moonlit door, writ plain,
He pinned with his poniard point, and spurred,
And rode for the gate again.

Back with the thunder of saddle and steel,
The heart of the hero sprang:
Loud and sharp in the silent night
The hoofs of his courser rang.

Fernando del Pulgar, sword and shield,
Helmet and hauberk too;
Back, like the hurricane wind he rode,
And the sparks from the pavement flew.

With a singing sweep and dint of his sword,
The blood of the Paynim flowed,
Hurled this way and that, and out of the gate
Fernando del Pulgar rode.

" I have ridden, " he shouted, " Mahomet's town,
As free as light or wind,
And high to the door of Mahomet's mosque
The name of the Virgin pinned. "