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74
MARIAGER.
Chap. XXXIV.
distinguished among the train two alone found favour in
her eyes, Sir Hem and Sir Sem—Sir Hem, the
blueeyed, the golden-haired, a Northman “ pur sangSir
Sem, of mixed Oriental blood, black-eyed and olive
tinted; his mother, a fair Eastern maiden, had followed
some stout Varangian,—her dowry a string of Cufic
coins twined among her tresses,—from the marble halls
of imperial Byzantium.
Fair-haired Sir Hem, black-eyed Sir Sem—what could
poor Mary do ? “ 1 cannot marry both,” she piteously
exclaimed; and she felt her heart always warmed
towards the present one; and that, you know, as she
confidentially owned to a female friend, would never do
after marriage. Hers was the old story of
“ How happy could I be with either,
Were the other dear charmer away!”
“ I can no longer stand this shilly-shally I” exclaims
Sir Hem.
11 No more can I,” replied Sir Sem.
“We must fight it out, and he who falls—”
“ Hold, brother! he who dies; there must be but
one survivor. We will fight naked to our waists.”
“ Agreed.”
The rivals now fall to—clash, clash, go the swords
(long swords, heavy as the iron bar of a gaol gate)—
clash, clash, clash again ; the golden tresses of Sir Hem
are now dyed scarlet red; the clear olive skin of the
brave Sir Sem blanched pale with loss of blood. Clash,
clash, they go—now fainter, cla-ash, cla-a-ash, till they
sound no longer, and each knight sinks dying, side by
side, in a pool of clotted gore.
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