Awhile he stoodhis falchion in his grasp, And rubbed his eyes to sharpen his dim sight, And then a mountain-form, covered with hair, Filling up all the space, rose into view.

By the blood-stained falchion of Mavors,[206] I am on your side.

To avert the impending danger, Mahomet, in a full assembly of the grandees, "catching with one hand," as Knolles relates it, "the fair Greek by the hair of her head, and drawing his falchion with the other, he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of them all; and, having so done, said unto them: 'Now by this, judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his affections or not.'"

"His brow was sad; his eye beneath Flashed like a falchion from its sheath.

They soon caught the fellow, and having "pumped" out of him all about the Trojan plans, and the arrival of Rhesus, Diomed smote him with his falchion on the mid-neck and slew him.