Then, rallying cries of treason and of danger
Resounded: and-"they come! to arms! to arms!
The Tyrant is amongst us, and the stranger
Comes to enslave us in his name! to arms!"
In vain: for Panic, the pale fiend who charms
Strength to fors wear her right, those millions swept
Like waves before the tempest-these alarms
Came to me, as to know their cause I leapt
On the gate's turret, and in rage and grief and scorn I wept!
For to the North I saw the town on fire,
And its red light made morning pallid now,
Which burst over wide Asia;-louder, higher,
The yells of victory and the screams of woe
I heard approach, and saw the throng below
Stream through the gates like foam-wrought waterfalls
Fed from a thousand storms-the fearful glow
Of bombs flares overhead-at intervals
The red artillery's bolt mangling among them falls.
And now the horsemen come—and all was done Swifter than I have spoken-I beheld Their red swords flash in the unrisen sun. I rushed among the rout to have repelled That miserable flight-one moment quelled By voice, and looks, and eloquent despair, As if reproach from their own hearts withheld Their steps, they stood; but soon came pouring there New multitudes, and did those rallied bands o'erbear.
I strove, as drifted on some cataract
By irresistible streams, some wretch might strive Who hears its fatal roar:-the files compact Whelmed me, and from the gate availed to drive With quickening impulse, as each bolt did rive Their ranks with bloodier chasm :-into the plain Disgorged at length the dead and the alive In one dread mass, were parted, and the stain Of blood, from mortal steel fell o'er the fields like rain.
For now the despot's blood-hounds with their prey,
Unarmed and unaware, were gorging deep
Their gluttony of death; the loose array
Of horsemen o'er the wide fields murdering sweep,
And with loud laughter for their tyrant reap
A harvest sown with other hopes, the while,
Far overhead, ships from Propontis keep
A killing rain of fire-when the waves smile,
As sudden earthquakes light many a volcano isle,
Thus sudden, unexpected feast was spread
For the carrion fowls of Heaven.-I saw the sightI moved I lived-as o'er the heaps of dead, Whose stony eyes glared in the morning light, I trod; to me there came no thought of flight, But with loud cries of scorn which whoso heard That dreaded death, felt in his veins the might Of virtuous shame return, the crowd I stirred, And desperation's hope in many hearts recurred.
A band of brothers gathering round me, made,
Although unarmed, a steadfast front, and still
Retreating, with stern looks beneath the shade
Of gathered eyebrows, did the victors fill
With doubt even in success; deliberate will
Inspired our growing troop, not overthrown.
It gained the shelter of a grassy hill,
And ever still our comrades were hewn down, And their defenceless limbs beneath our footsteps strown,
Immovably we stood-in joy I found,
Beside me then, firm as a giant pine
Among the mountain vapours driven around,
The old man whom I loved-his eyes divine
With a mild look of courage answered mine,
And my young friend was near, and ardently
His hand grasped mine a moment-now the line
Of war extended, to our rallying cry
As myriads flocked in love and brotherhood to die.
For ever while the sun was climbing Heaven
The horseman hewed our unarmed myriads down
Safely, tho' when by thirst of carnage driven
Too near, those slaves were swiftly overthrown
By hundreds leaping on them:-flesh and bone
Soon made our ghastly ramparts; then the shaft
Of the artillery from the sea was thrown
More fast and fiery, and the conquerors laughed
In pride to hear the wind our screams of torment waft.
For on one side alone the hill gave shelter,
So vast that phalanx of unconquered men,
And there the living in the blood did welter
Of the dead and dying, which, in that green glen,
Like stifled torrents, made a plashy fen
Under the feet-thus was the butchery waged
While the sun clomb Heaven's eastern steep-but when
It 'gan to sink-a fiercer combat raged,
For in more doubtful strife the armies were engaged.
Within a cave upon the hill were found
A bundle of rude pikes, the instrument
Of those who war but on their native ground
For natural rights: a shout of joyance sent
Even from our hearts the wide air pierced and rent,
As those few arms the bravest and the best
Seized, and each sixth, thus armed, did now present A line which covered and sustained the rest,
A confident phalanx, which the foes on every side invest
That onset turned the foes to flight almost;
But soon they saw their present strength, and knew
That coming night would to our resolute host
Bring victory, so dismounting close they drew
Their glittering files, and then the combat grew
Unequal but most horrible;-and ever
Our myriads, whom the swift bolt overthrew,
Or the red sword, failed like a mountain river
Which rushes forth in foam to sink in sands forever.
Sorrow and shame, to see with their own kind
Our human brethren mix, like beasts of blood
To mutual ruin armed by one behind
Who sits and scoffs-That friend so mild and good,
Who like its shadow near my youth had stood,
Was stabbed-my old preserver's hoary hair
With the flesh clinging to its roots, was strewed
Under my feet!-I lost all sense or care,
And like the rest I grew desperate and unaware.
The battle became ghastlier-in the midst
I paused, and saw how ugly and how fell,
O Hate! thou art, even when thy life thou shed'st
For love. The ground in many a little dell
Was broken, up and down whose steeps befell
Alternate victory and defeat, and there
The combatants with rage most horrible
Strove, and their eyes started with cracking stare,
And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air,
Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog's hanging;
Want, and Moon-madness, and the pest's swift Bane
When its shafts smite-while yet its bow is twanging-
Have each their mark and sign-some ghastly stain;
And this was thine, O War! of hate and pain
Thou loathed slave. I saw all shapes of death
And ministered to many, o'er the plain
While carnage in the sun-beam's warmth did seethe, Till twilight o'er the east wove her serenest wreathe.
The few who yet survived, resolute and firm
Around me fought. At the decline of day
Winding above the mountain's snowy term
New banners shone: they quivered in the ray
Of the sun's unseen orb-ere night the array
Of fresh troops hemmed us in-of those brave bands.
I soon survived alone-and now I lay
Vanquished and faint, the grasp of bloody hands
I felt, and saw on high the glare of falling brands:
When on my foes a sudden terror came,
And they fled, scattering-lo! with reinless speed
A black Tartarian horse of giant frame
Comes trampling over the dead, the living bleed
Beneath the hoofs of that tremendous steed,
On which, like to an Angel, robed in white,
Sate one waving a sword;-the hosts recede
And fly, as thro' their ranks with awful might,
Sweeps in the shadow of eve that Phantom swift and bright;
And its path made a solitude.—I rose
And marked its coming: it relaxed its course
As it approached me, and the wind that flows
Thro' night, bore accents to mine ear whose force
Might create smiles in death-the Tartar horse
Paused, and I saw the shape its might which swayed,
And heard her musical pants, like the sweet source
Of waters in the desart, as she said,
'Mount with me Laon, now"-I rapidly obeyed.
Then: "Away! away!" she cried, and stretched her sword
As 'twere a scourge over the courser's head,
And lightly shook the reins:-We spake no word
But like the vapour of the tempest fled
Over the plain; her dark hair was dispread
Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast;
Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread
Fitfully, and the hills and streams fled fast,
As o'er their glimmering forms the steed's broad shadow past.
And his hoofs ground the rocks to fire and dust,
His strong sides made the torrents rise in spray,
And turbulence, as of a whirlwind's gust
Surrounded us;-and still away! away!
Thro' the desart night we sped, while she alway
Gazed on a mountain which we neared, whose crest
Crowned with a marble ruin, in the ray
Of the obscure stars gleamed;-its rugged breast The steed strained up, and then his impulse did arrest.
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