One cry from the destroyed and the destroyer Dried with its beams the strength in Moslem hearts, As the sun drinks the dew.-What more? We fled! Our noonday path over the sanguine foam Was beaconed, and the glare struck the sun pale, By our consuming transports: the fierce light Made all the shadows of our sails blood-red, And every countenance blank. Some ships lay feeding The ravening fire, even to the water's level; 510 Some were blown up; some, settling heavily, Sunk; and the shrieks of our companions died Upon the wind, that bore us fast and far, Even after they were dead. Nine thousand perished! We met the vultures legioned in the air Stemming the torrent of the tainted wind; They, screaming from their cloudy mountainpeaks, Stooped through the sulphurous battle-smoke and perched Each on the weltering carcase that we loved, 520 We saw the dog-fish hastening to their feast. Joy waked the voiceless people of the sea,1 And with night, tempest MAHMUD. Cease! Enter a Messenger. MESSENGER. Your Sublime Highness, That Christian hound the Muscovite Ambas sador Has left the city.-If the rebel fleet Had anchored in the port, had victory 530 Crowned the Greek legions in the Hippodrome, MAHMUD. Is the grave not calmer still? Its ruins shall be mine. HASSAN. Fear not the Russian : The tiger leagues not with the stag at bay Against the hunter.-Cunning, base, and cruel, He crouches, watching till the spoil be won, And must be paid for his reserve in blood. 540 1 1 Compare the Persæ of Æschylus, verses 578-80:— γναπτόμενοι δ ̓ ἁλὶ δεινᾷ, φεῦ σκύλλονται πρὸς ἀναυδων, ἐὴ, παίδων τᾶς ἀμιάντου, ὀά.—ED. After the war is fought, yield the sleek Russian That which thou canst not keep, his deserved portion Of blood, which shall not flow through streets and fields, Rivers and seas, like that which we may win, But stagnate in the veins of Christian slaves! Enter second Messenger. SECOND MESsenger. Nauplia, Tripolizza, Mothon, Athens, Corinth and Thebes are carried by assault, 550 Passed at the edge of the sword: the lust of blood, Which made our warriors drunk, is quenched in death; But like a fiery plague breaks out anew In deeds which make the Christian cause look pale In its own light. The garrison of Patras A crownless metaphor of empire: 561 His name, that shadow of his withered might, ! 570 Holds our besieging army like a spell Of Indian gold. Enter a third Messenger. MAHMUD. What more? THIRD MESSENGER. The Christian tribes Of Lebanon and the Syrian wilderness The Ethiop has intrenched himself in Sennaar, Catch the volcano-fire and earthquake spasm, 592 Are heard among the crowd: that sea of men 1 Virgins sent annually to replenish the Sultan's seraglio.-ED. 600 That it is written how the sins of Islam The secret wrath of Nature and her Lord. The last news from the camp is, that a thousand Enter a fourth Messenger. MAHMUD. And thou, pale ghost, dim shadow Of some untimely rumour, speak! FOURTH MESSENGER. One comes 620 Fainting with toil, covered with foam and blood: He stood, he says, upon Chelonites' Promontory, which o'erlooks the isles that groan Under the Briton's frown, and all their waters Then trembling in the splendour of the moon, |