V.

From every nation of the earth they came, The multitude of moving heartless things, Whom slaves call men: obediently they came, Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings

To the stall, red with blood; their many kings

Led them, thus erring, from their native

land;

Tartar and Frank, and millions whom the

wings

Of Indian breezes lull, and many a band The Arctic Anarch sent, and Idumea's sand,

VI.

Fertile in prodigies and lies;-so there
Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill.
The desert savage ceased to grasp in fear
His Asian shield and bow, when, at the will
Of Europe's subtler son, the bolt would kill
Some shepherd sitting on a rock secure;
But smiles of wondering joy his face would
fill,

And savage sympathy: those slaves impure, Each one the other thus from ill to ill did lure.

VII.

For traitorously did that foul Tyrant robe His countenance in lies,-even at the hour When he was snatched from death, then o'er the globe

With secret signs from many a mountain tower,

With smoke by day, and fire by night, the power

Of Kings and Priests, those dark conspirators,

He called:-they knew his cause their own, and swore,

Like wolves and serpents, to their mutual

wars

Strange truce, with many a rite which Earth and Heaven abhors.

VIII.

Myriads had come-millions were on their way;

The Tyrant passed, surrounded by the steel Of hired assassins, through the public way, Choked with his country's dead :—his footsteps reel

On the fresh blood-he smiles, "Aye, now I feel

I am a King in truth!" he said, and took His royal seat, and bade the torturing wheel Be brought, and fire, and pincers, and the hook,

And scorpions; that his soul on its revenge might look.

IX.

"But first, go slay the rebels-why return The victor bands?" he said, "millions yet

live,

Of whom the weakest with one word might

turn

The scales of victory yet;-let none survive But those within the walls-each fifth shall

give

The expiation for his brethren here.—

Go forth, and waste and kill!”—“O king, forgive

My speech," a soldier answered-" but we fear

The spirits of the night, and morn is drawing

near;

X.

For we were slaying still without remorse, And now that dreadful chief beneath my hand Defenceless lay, when, on a hell-black horse, An Angel bright as day, waving a brand Which flashed among the stars, passed.""Dost thou stand

Parleying with me, thou wretch ?" the king replied;

66

Slaves, bind him to the wheel; and of this band,

Whoso will drag that woman to his side That scared him thus, may burn his dearest foe beside;

XI.

"And gold and glory shall be his.-Go forth!"

They rushed into the plain.-Loud was the

roar

Of their career: the horsemen shook the

earth;

The wheeled artillery's speed the pavement

tore;

The infantry, file after file, did pour

Their clouds on the utmost hills. Five days they slew

Among the wasted fields: the sixth saw gore Stream thro' the city; on the seventh, the

dew

Of slaughter became stiff; and there was peace

anew:

XII.

Peace in the desert fields and villages, Between the glutted beasts and mangled dead!

Peace in the silent streets! save when the cries

Of victims to their fiery judgment led

Made pale their voiceless lips who seemed to dread

Even in their dearest kindred, lest some tongue

Be faithless to the fear yet unbetrayed; Peace in the Tyrant's palace, where the throng

Waste the triumphal hours in festival and song!

XIII.

Day after day the burning Sun rolled on
Over the death-polluted land-it came
Out of the east like fire, and fiercely shone
A lamp of Autumn, ripening with its flame
The few lone ears of corn;—the sky became
Stagnate with heat, so that each cloud and
blast

Languished and died, the thirsting air did claim

All moisture, and a rotting vapour passed From the unburied dead, invisible and fast.

XIV.

First Want, then Plague came on the beasts; their food

1 The word fear may possibly be a misprint for few, as has been suggested; but it is scarcely secure to make the change without evidence, since the passage, though difficult, is not unintelligible as it stands.

-ED.

Failed, and they drew the breath of its decay. Millions on millions, whom the scent of blood

Had lured, or who, from regions far away, Had tracked the hosts in festival array, From their dark deserts, gaunt and wasting

now,

Stalked like fell shades among their perished prey;

In their green eyes a strange disease did

glow,

They sank in hideous spasm, or pains severe and slow.

XV.

The fish were poisoned in the streams; the birds

In the green woods perished; the insect race Was withered up; the scattered flocks and herds

Who had survived the wild beasts' hungry chase

Died moaning, each upon the other's face In helpless agony gazing; round the City All night the lean hyenas their sad case Like starving infants wailed-a woful ditty! And many a mother wept, pierced with unnatural pity.

XVI.

Amid the aërial minarets on high,
The Ethiopian vultures fluttering fell
From their long line of brethren in the sky,
Startling the concourse of mankind.-Too

well

These signs the coming mischief did fore

tell: