He too, . . . for anger, rising at the sight

Of him he sought, in such strange thrall confin’d.

With desperate courage fir’d Ladurlad’s mind, . . .

He, too, unto the fight himself addrest,

And grappling breast to breast,

With foot firm-planted stands,

And seiz’d the monster’s throat with both his hands.

Vainly, with throttling grasp, he prest

The impenetrable scales;

And lo! the guard rose up, and round his foe,

With gliding motion, wreath’d his lengthening coils,

Then tighten’d all their folds with stress and strain.

Nought would the raging Tyger’s strength avail

If once involv’d within those mighty toils;

The arm’d Rhinoceros, so clasp’d, in vain

Had trusted to his hide of rugged mail,

His bones all broken, and the breath of life

Crush’d from the lungs, in that unequal strife.

Again, and yet again, he sought to break

The impassive limbs; but when the monster found

His utmost power was vain,

A moment he relax’d in every round,

Then knit his coils again with closer strain,

And, bearing forward, forced him to the ground.