Enter MAHMUD, HASSAN, DAOOD, and others. Go! bid them pay themselves With Christian blood! Are there no Grecian virgins Whose shrieks and spasms and tears they may enjoy? No infidel children to impale on spears? No hoary priests after that Patriarch Who bent the curse against his country's heart, Which clove his own at last? Go! bid them It has been sown, And yet the harvest to the sicklemen Is as a grain to each. MAHMUD. Then, take this signet, 250 Unlock the seventh chamber in which lie The prey-birds and the wolves are gorged and sleep; But these, who spread their feast on the red earth, Hunger for gold, which fills not.—See them fed; Then, lead them to the rivers of fresh death. [Exit DAOOD. 259 O! miserable dawn, after a night wings Darkened the thrones and idols of the West, Now bright!-For thy sake cursèd be the hour, Even as a father by an evil child, When the Orient moon of Islam rolled in triumph From Caucasus to White Ceraunia! Ruin above, and anarchy below; Terror without, and treachery within; 270 The Chalice of destruction full, and all Thirsting to drink; and who among us dares To dash it from his lips? and where is Hope? HASSAN. The lamp of our dominion still rides high; One God is God-Mahomet is his prophet. Four hundred thousand Moslems from the limits Of utmost Asia, irresistibly Throng, like full clouds at the Scirocco's cry; But not like them to weep their strength in tears: 281 They bear destroying lightning, and their step Wakes earthquake to consume and overwhelm, And reign in ruin. Phrygian Olympus, Tmolus, and Latmos, and Mycale, roughen With horrent arms; and lofty ships even now, Like vapours anchored to a mountain's edge, Freighted with fire and whirlwind, wait at Scala The convoy of the ever-veering wind. Samos is drunk with blood;-the Greek has paid Brief victory with swift loss and long despair. Of wild swans struggling with the naked storm. 300 310 They sweep the pale Ægean, while the Queen Or bears the sword, or grasps the key of gold, Whose friends are not thy friends, whose foes thy foes? Our arsenals and our armories are full; 320 Our forts defy assault; ten thousand cannon Lie ranged upon the beach, and hour by hour Their earth-convulsing wheels affright the city; The galloping of fiery steeds makes pale The Christian merchant; and the yellow Jew Hides his hoard deeper in the faithless earth. Like clouds, and like the shadows of the clouds, Over the hills of Anatolia, 330 Swift in wide troops the Tartar chivalry We have one God, one King, one Hope, one Law; But many-headed Insurrection stands Divided in itself, and soon must fall, MAHMUD. Proud words, when deeds come short, are seasonable: Look, Hassan, on yon crescent moon, emblazoned 340 Upon that shattered flag of fiery cloud above, One star with insolent and victorious light Renews itself HASSAN. Even as that moon MAHMUD. Shall we be not renewed! 350 Far other bark than ours were needed now HASSAN. Ibrahim's scymitar Drew with its gleam swift victory from heaven, MAHMUD. Aye! the day Was ours: but how? HASSAN. The light Wallachians, The Arnaut, Servian, and Albanian allies 370 |