The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

Grim horsemen, mounted like to him
On sinewy coursers wild as deer,
Arrived from desert edges dim,
With bow and quiver, shield and spear,
Their deerskins tossing on the air,
Their eyes aflame through ebon hair.
But when they spied the paleface nigh,
They whirled away with fearful cry
And rode athwart the rimless plain,
Low-bowed above the streaming mane,
As rideth one who flies a sprite,
Or fiend, or other parlous sight.

Again, for days he saw no face.
The land was manless where he came,
As though he drove the human race
Before him like a prairie flame.
The only man alive he seemed,
The last upon a sentenced earth;
For him alone the sunrise beamed,
For him the rainbow had its birth.
Yet, whether palled in solitude,
Or compassed round by salvage brood,
He rode with eager heart and gay,
Because afar he saw his prey
And closed upon her day by day.