Anxious Heartbeats

The night was dark and the clouds hid the moon.
The maidservant looked out, and was about to swoon.
The wind blew hard, and the tiles clattered,
and the duke heard the gallop -
the distant gallop...
as if above the noise of the wind, his ears had shattered.

He frowned, he scowled and he gnashed his teeth.
In the dead of the night, his sword came out of its sheath.
He put on and buckled his coat of leather,
and then he heard the gallop -
the ominous gallop...
Who was it now, in this unearthly weather?

He opened his window and called his guard.
The panes shook wildly, he fastened their cord.
Down in the sheep-pen he heard a nervous bleat,
and he heard the gallop -
the continuous gallop...
and his heart began to skip a beat.

He bolted from his tower, securing his lace.
His guard came behind him, wiping rain from his face.
The duke stood in the doorway, and scratched his toe,
again he heard the gallop -
the restless gallop...
and he outstretched his sword to face his foe.

The gallop slowed to a canter and then to a trot.
Then there were some footsteps, and then there were not.
All of a sudden, the duke dismissed his guard,
he'd recognised the gallop -
the familiar gallop...
and sent back into the sheath, his sword.

A moment later, the door came crashing in.
He was covered in doe-skin, from the toe till the chin.
He stood there, and brushed his golden mane,
he had come by the gallop -
a black stallion's gallop...
the duke's long lost friend, drenched in the rain.

29VIII00