One half the Grecian army made a bridge MAHMUD. Speak-tremble not. HASSAN. Islanded By victor myriads, formed in hollow square With rough and steadfast front, and thrice flung back The deluge of our foaming cavalry; Thrice their keen wedge of battle pierced our lines. Our baffled army trembled like one man blazed, but soon, 380 Kneading them down with fire and iron rain : Yet none approached; till, like a field of corn Under the hook of the swart sickleman, The band, intrenched in mounds of Turkish dead, Grew weak and few.-Then said the Pacha, "Slaves, "Render yourselves - they have abandoned you "What hope of refuge, or retreat, or aid? 66 66 We grant your lives." Grant that which is thine own!" Cried one, and fell upon his sword and died! Another "God, and man, and hope abandon me; "But I to them, and to myself, remain 66 390 "Constant: "he bowed his head, and his heart burst. A third exclaimed, "There is a refuge, tyrant, "Where thou darest not pursue, and canst not harm, "Should'st thou pursue; there we shall meet again." Then held his breath, and, after a brief spasm, Held back the base hyenas of the battle And if it were a corpse which some dread spirit 410 Of the old saviours of the land we rule Had lifted in its anger wandering by ;Or if there burned within the dying man Unquenchable disdain of death, and faith Creating what it feigned;-I cannot tellBut he cried, "Phantoms of the free, we come! "Armies of the Eternal, ye who strike "To dust the citadels of sanguine kings, "And shake the souls throned on their stony hearts, "And thaw their frost-work diadems like dew; "O ye who float around this clime, and weave "The garment of the glory which it wears, "Whose fame, though earth betray the dust it clasped, "Lies sepulchred in monumental thought;-"Progenitors of all that yet is great, "Ascribe to your bright senate, O accept 421 "In your high ministrations, us, your sons— "Us first, and the more glorious yet to come! "And ye, weak conquerors! giants who look pale "When the crushed worm rebels beneath your tread, "The vultures and the dogs, your pensioners tame, "Are overgorged; but, like oppressors, still They crave the relic of Destruction's feast. "The exhalations and the thirsty winds "Are sick with blood; the dew is foul with death; 430 "Heaven's light is quenched in slaughter: thus, 66 where'er Upon your camps, cities, or towers, or fleets, "The obscene birds the reeking remnants cast "Of these dead limbs,-upon your streams and mountains, "Upon your fields, your gardens, and your house-tops, 66 Where'er the winds shall creep, or the clouds fly, "Or the dews fall, or the angry sun look down "With poisoned light-Famine and Pestilence, "And Panic, shall wage war upon our side! 440 "Nature from all her boundaries is moved "Against ye: Time has found ye light as foam. "The Earth rebels; and Good and Evil stake "Their empire o'er the unborn world of men "On this one cast;-but ere the die be thrown, "The renovated genius of our race, "Proud umpire of the impious game, descends "A seraph-winged Victory, bestriding "The tempest of the Omnipotence of God, "Which sweeps all things to their appointed doom, 450 Died-as thou shouldst ere thy lips had Their ruin in the hues of our success. HASSAN. It may be so: A spirit not my own wrenched me within, The fleet which, like a flock of clouds 460 Chased by the wind, flies the insurgent banner. Our winged-castles from their merchant ships! Our myriads before their weak pirate bands! Our arms before their chains! our years of empire Before their centuries of servile fear! Death is awake! Repulse is on the waters! They own no more the thunder-bearing banner Of Mahmud; but, like hounds of a base breed, Gorge from a stranger's hand, and rend their master. HASSAN. Latmos, and Ampelos, and Phanæ, saw The wreck MAHMUD. 470 The caves of the Icarian isles Told each to the other in loud mockery, And with the tongue as of a thousand echoes, First of the sea-convulsing fight-and, then,Thou darest to speak-senseless are the mountains: Interpret thou their voice! HASSAN. My presence bore A part in that day's shame. The Grecian fleet Bore down at day-break from the North, and hung As multitudinous on the ocean line, As cranes upon the cloudless Thracian wind. 480 Our squadron, convoying ten thousand men, Was stretching towards Nauplia when the battle Was kindled. First through the hail of our artillery The agile Hydriote barks with press of sail Dashed:-ship to ship, cannon to cannon, man To man were grappled in the embrace of war, Poised on an hundred azure mountain-isles. |