Excerpt from The Defence of the Bride: And Other Poems The Defence of the Bride. He was coming from the altar when the tocsin rang alarm, With his fair young wife beside him, lovely in her bridal charm; But he was not one to palter with a duty, or to slight The trumpet-call of honor for his vantage or delight. Turning from the bride beside him to his stern and martial train, From their midst he summoned to him the brothers of Germain; At the word they stepped before him, nine strong warriors, brave and true, From the youngest to the eldest, Enguerrand to mighty Hugh. "Sons of Germain, to your keeping do I yield my bride to-day. Guard her well as you do love me; guard her well and holily. Dearer than mine own soul to me, you will hold her as your life, 'Gainst the guile of seeming friendship and the force of open strife." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.