THE 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY EPICK. 
 
LONDON 
 
 PRINTED BT SPOTTISWOODE AITD CO. 
 
 UEW-STBEET SQXJABE 
 
THE 
 
 RE VOLUTION AKY EPICK. 
 
 BY THE 
 RIGHT HOXORABLE 
 
 BENJAMIN DISEAELI. 
 
 J ' •• " a > \ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, EGBERTS, & GREEN, 
 
 1864. 
 
I ? 6 V 
 
 TO 
 
 LORD STANLEY. 
 
 As it Has long been improbable that I slioukl ever 
 publish another work, I have sometimes regretted that 
 I could never avail myself of the most graceful pri- 
 vilege of a writer, and inscribe upon a page the name 
 of one to whom I am indebted for an interesting and 
 faithful friendship. But as the unforeseen always 
 occurs, an occasion has offered for this pleasing office, 
 which I could never have contemplated. 
 
 Thirty years ago I printed a few copies of a portion 
 of a poem, with which I did not proceed, but the nature 
 of which has now unexpectedly become the subject 
 of public controversy. As only fifty copies of it were 
 printed at the time, and probably many of these are 
 now destroyed, there is no reason why the controversy 
 should not be recurrent and interminable, since very 
 few, if any, who offer their opinions upon its character, 
 can, necessarily, have seen the work, it being, as the late 
 
 -'-ioiai 
 
^ 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 Mr. Coleridge subsequently said of one of his earlier 
 productions, ' as good as manuscript.' 
 
 I have, therefore, thought it the simplest course, 
 and one which might save me trouble hereafter, to 
 publish ' The Eevolutionary Epick.' It is printed from 
 the only copy in my possession, and which, with slight 
 exceptions, was corrected in 1837, when, after three 
 3^ears' reflection, I had resolved not only to correct, but 
 to complete, the work. The corrections are purely 
 literary. The somewhat sudden Accession of Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty occasioned in that year a dis- 
 solution of Parliament, and being then returned to 
 the House of Commons, in which I have since sat 
 without an interval, these dreams for ever vanished. 
 
 HUGHENDEN MaNOR 
 
 Easter, 1861. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE ORIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 It was on the plains of Troy that I first conceived the 
 idea of this Work. Wandering over that illustrious 
 scene, surrounded by the tombs of heroes and by the 
 confluence of poetic streams, my musing thoughts clus- 
 tered round the memory of that immortal song, to 
 which all creeds and countries alike respond, which 
 has vanquished Chance, and defies Time. Deeming 
 myself, perchance too rashly, m that excited hour, a 
 Poet, I cursed the destiny that had placed me in an age 
 that boasted of being anti-poetical. And while my 
 Fancy thus struggled with my Reason, it flashed across 
 my mind, like the lightning that was then playing over 
 Ida, that in those great poems which rise, the pyramids 
 of poetic art, amid the falling and the fading splendour 
 
Vlll PEEFACE TO 
 
 of less creations, the Poet hath ever embodied the spirit 
 of his Time. Thus the most heroick incident of an 
 heroick age produced in the Iliad an Heroick Epick ; 
 thus, the consolidation of the most superb of empires 
 produced in the ^neid a Political Epick ; the revival 
 of learning and the birth of vernacular genius presented 
 us in the Divine Comedy with a National Epick ; and 
 the Eeformation and its consequences called from the 
 rapt lyre of Milton a Religious Epick. 
 
 And the spirit of my Time shall it alone be uncele- 
 brated ? 
 
 Standing upon Asia, and gazing upon Europe, with 
 the broad Hellespont alone between us, and the shadow 
 of night descending on the mountains, these mighty con- 
 tinents appeared to me, as it were, the rival principles 
 of government that, at present, contend for the mastery 
 of the world. ' What ! ' I exclaimed, ' Is the revolution 
 of France a less important event than the siege of 
 Troy ? Is Napoleon a less interesting character than 
 Achilles ? For me remains the Eevolutionary Epick.' 
 
 Full of these thoughts, I descended to the shore, and 
 again embarking, a favouring breeze filled our languid 
 sails, and as the morning broke over the waters of the 
 Propontic sea, I beheld the glittering minarets and the 
 cypress groves of the last city of the Caesars. 
 
THE ORIGINAL EDITION, IX 
 
 In that delightful metropolis, more than once mj 
 thoughts recurred to my Dardanian reverie; but the 
 distraction of far travel, and the composition of two 
 works long meditated — one devoted to the delineation 
 of the poetic character, the other to the celebration of 
 a gorgeous incident in the annals of that sacred and 
 romantic people from whom I derive my blood and 
 name, finally expelled from my thoughts a conception 
 which, in truth, I deemed too bold. 
 
 My return to the strife of civilisation recalled old 
 musings, and the Work, first conceived amid the sunny 
 isles of the Egean, I have lived to mature, and in great 
 part compose, on the shores of a colder sea, but not less 
 famous land. Yet I have ventured to submit to the 
 pubhc but a small portion of my creation, and even 
 that, with unaffected distrust and sincere humility. 
 Whatever may be their decision I shall bow to it with- 
 out a murmur ; for I am not one who find consolation 
 for the neglect of my contemporaries in the imaginary 
 plaudits of a more sympathetic posterity. The public 
 will then decide whether tliis "Work is to be continued 
 and completed ; and if it pass in the negative, I shall, 
 without a pang, hurl my lyre to Limbo. 
 
 The first two books of this Eevolutionary Epick will 
 comprise the pleadings of the rival Genii. The action 
 
X PKEFACE TO THE OEIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 of the fable commences with the third book. This 
 Work, if it be j)ermitted to proceed, will, I hope, evolve 
 a moral which governors and the governed may alike 
 peruse with profit ; and which may teach wisdom both 
 to monarchs and to multitudes. 
 
 Bradenham, Bucks : 
 Easter, 1834. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 MAGROS 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 LYRIDON 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 79 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 
 
 . 131 
 
Book I,- 
 MAGEOS, 
 
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST BOOK. 
 
 SECTION 
 
 Magros, the genius of Feudalism, and Ltridon, the 
 genius of Federalism, appear before the throne of 
 Demo(K)BGon 1 — 7 
 
 Th^ pica of Magros. General viiw of the state of 
 
 Society during the last age of the 'Roman Empire . 8 
 
 Magros creates a new race of men. Appearance of the 
 barbarous natioris. Their invasion and conquest of 
 the civilised world 9—12 
 
 Magros ommng, listens to a heavenly chorus, which 
 declares that Beligion is natural to man. The 
 Descent of Christianity and its corruptions . . 13 — 17 
 
 Two beautiful youtJis scdute Magros .... 18 — 19 
 Magros descends to Earth with Faith and Fealty . . 20 
 
 They arrive at a flace of Euins ajid conftr with the 
 
 Spirit of an ancient Throne ..... 21 — 26 
 
 Institution of the Feuded Papacy. The two principles 
 on which the new system of society is founded: 
 Religion and Loycdiy . . , . .27-29 
 
4 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST BOOK. 
 
 SECTION' 
 
 OfNoUlity 30 
 
 Of Tower : its nature and origin : its exercise for the 
 
 few: its pur2)ose the happiness of the many , . 31 
 
 Portrait of a true Noble ...... 32 
 
 That under the Feudal or Aristocratic system Agri- 
 cidture, Commerce, the finest arts of Civilisation, 
 Architecture, Toetry, Tainting, have eminently 
 flourished 33—35 
 
 Not less favourable to the advancement of Science . . 36 
 
 That it has been formed in a profound knowledge of 
 human nature, and sympathises with the wants and 
 wishes of Man : that it has, consequently, afforded 
 an ample and secure development of his character . 37 
 
 That it has elevated the character of Woman . , 38 
 
 Murder of the Queen of France and Eevolution of 
 
 France. Its plea, Equality 39 
 
 Of Equality : its nature and consequences ... 40 
 
 What constitutes a Teople 41 
 
 When were men equall What constitutes an Aristo- 
 cracy ? The more artificial Society the more natural 
 the state of Man. Art is Man's nature. Society 
 not formed by philosophers 42 
 
 Of National Character : how formed .... 43 
 
CONTENTS OF THE FIEST BOOK. 5 
 
 SBCnON 
 
 Society the creation of Ineqiiality. Man governed by his 
 
 Imagination, not by his Season . . . , 44 
 
 Faith and Fealty quit earth in despair, and describe to 
 
 Magros the ravages of the Monster, Change . .45 — 47 
 
 The State sacred: even its faults to be viewed with 
 
 reverence. Forms of government of little importance 48 
 
 Faith and Fealty relate their encounter with the Monster 49 
 
 Magros descends to Earth to subdue the Monster, and en- 
 counters Lyridon, the genius of Federalism. They 
 agree to appear before the throne of Demogorgon and 
 solicit his decree ....... 50 — 52 
 
BOOK THE FIEST. 
 
 MAGEOS. 
 
 I. 
 
 Throned on an orb of light, his awful form 
 By cloud translucent veiled, as mist conceals 
 The cataract, the terrors of his mien 
 Ineffable, subduing ; darkly shone 
 The Demogorgon. Eound his high estate, 
 Maintained their pride the spirits of his host 
 In vast array. Bright beings like the morn, 
 With amethystine wings and starry crowns, 
 Rank above rank, in semicircled grace ; 
 The chiefs in front, behind the inferior sprites, 
 Till with the dimness of the distant sky 
 
 B 
 
MAG EOS. 
 
 Mingle tl-eir bleiiding wings; while broad and bright, 
 Spanning this solemn company, its arch 
 An iris spreads. 
 
 II. 
 
 Within that arch a sound 
 Like voice of gathering winds, when from his dream 
 Troubled, the storm awakes, and wild and grim, 
 Panting for ruin, to a trembling world 
 Murmurs his rage. As to that ominous sound 
 The forest shuddering bends, and in their caves 
 In pallid ecstasy the crouching beasts 
 Cling to the earth, so that bright multitude 
 Vail their high crowns, and flir their fluttering wings 
 In murmurs droop. The sound increased in might 
 Until the Iris to its trembling base 
 Shook in the flaming air. Hark to the peal ! 
 Almighty words the almighty silence break : 
 It is the voice of that Almighty throne. 
 
MAGROS. 
 
 III. 
 
 ' Two Spirits bend before us, two desires 
 Blend with the passions of a struggling race : 
 A twilight vision and a faded dream 
 Are Past and Future to the shadowy ken 
 Of dark creation, and their present breath 
 A shifting mystery ; but with us no Past, 
 No Future ; and what was, and is to be, 
 And the wild passage of the rapid hour, 
 Are as the colours of this visible arch, 
 Blended and beautiful ! Before us kneel 
 The genii of the world : the hour hath come 
 When their high pleadings in the cause of man 
 Await our doom : rise dread antagonists ! ' 
 
 IV. 
 
 Whereat two mighty Spirits swift upsprang, 
 Erst couchant at the foot of that high throne, 
 Huge, strange, and motionless, like those vast shapes 
 On some Nilotic isle the pilgrim marks 
 B 2 
 
10 MAGROS. 
 
 Basking in tropic ray. Athwart the orb 
 Their mounting shadows fell ; as columns rise, 
 Seaborn, the splendour of the midland wave 
 Dusking, what time Arabia's scorching breath 
 Bows the light crowns of Palestina's palms, 
 And clouds the dark-blue isles. 
 
 V. 
 
 The first Avas like 
 The Night, when moon and stars and quivering flash 
 Mix with the moving tumult of the time 
 Beauteous and wild. In armour clad this form 
 Of rarest adamant ; a mitred helm, 
 Framed of a single beryl, bound his brow, 
 O'ershadowed by a plume that seemed a cloud 
 Pregnant with thunder: on one gleaming arm. 
 Like to a setting sun a shield he bore 
 Flashing with flame ; the other waved a lance. 
 Of some tempestuous ship it seemed the mast 
 Stricken with light. 
 
MAGROS. 11 
 
 VI. 
 
 The visage of the last 
 "Was like the Day, when in the summer sky 
 The young moon sports ; as in a garden roams, 
 Her duteous task released, some gentle child 
 A father loves. Enclosed the radiant form 
 A silver zone ; while fillet-bound his brow. 
 Refulgent, scarcely shade his flowing locks. 
 Silver his spotless shield ; his right arm waves 
 A falchion dazzling. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In their pride they stood. 
 The robed spirit and the mailed shape ; 
 Nor lack of courtesy ; tho' when one form 
 With ready reverence bowed, the beryl helm 
 But slightly vailed its plume ; as on some Alp, 
 Or Ida's Cretan mount, primaeval pine 
 The passing breeze scarce heeds. The empyrean ranks 
 Throughout a tremor runs, when, with a sweep 
 
] 2 MAGROS. 
 
 Waving his mighty weapon, seemed to speak 
 The supernatural warrior : on the air 
 Floated the voice of ages. 
 
 YIII. 
 
 '■ An ocean of long years hath cast its waves 
 
 On Time's eternal shore, since first to man. 
 
 Ancient of Days, thy harbinger, on Earth 
 
 I lighted : in a dull decay then seemed 
 
 That antique globe ; creeds, customs, manners, laws. 
 
 Pithless alike ; fitful as dying dream 
 
 Of dim decrepitude, when all things change ; 
 
 Feeble at once and wild ; the sufferers shift 
 
 Wlio restless varies torture. Nature then 
 
 And man both seemed exhaust ; an ancient pair 
 
 UiDon the winter of whose latter days 
 
 Pour thick the shrivelled leaves. A piteous scene ! 
 
 War brought no glory, no delight bore Peace ; 
 
 The hand forgot its craft, the eye its skill ; 
 
 All sense of beauty and all sights of love 
 
MACROS. 13 
 
 Drooped off and died ; the temple of high thought 
 Each hour some falling column told its fate ; 
 Seemed struck the soul of man ; his very crimes 
 Lacked vigour, tho' most vile : the eunuch's spite 
 And woman's craft : all honour, justice, faith. 
 Pure hearth, and love of fatherland, the soul 
 That will not breathe a slave, and all for which 
 Men strive, or live, or die, from the wan earth 
 Withered : while mid her ruined palaces, 
 Discrowned Empire, with her toothless threats, 
 Sat like a beldame on a churchyard tomb 
 At whom the urchins scoff. 
 
 IX, 
 
 ' Alone I stood 
 Upon the loftiest mountain of the earth, 
 And from the faded majesty of man 
 Dull thrones, and witless theatres, and ports 
 Rotting with shroudless ships, to the dark world 
 That man had not defiled I turned, where spread 
 
14 MAGKOS. 
 
 The eternal forest, shadowing mighty streams 
 And silent oceans. Maiden womb of Time, 
 Quick with the struggles of a coming Avorld, 
 Each branch an empire. O'er its form obscure 
 I waved this lance, thrice struck this ruby shield, 
 Ked as that sun whose rays it yet defied. 
 
 X. 
 
 ' Anon ! a murmur thro' that wilderness 
 Busy as eager leaves to voice of Spring 
 Kesponding blithely. Lo ! each hoary grove 
 Bursting with swarming life. Their multitudes 
 Nations and tribes pour forth ; each ancient cavern 
 Vomits its valiant clan ; each gloomy gorge 
 Its uncouth horde ; in leafy raiment clad, 
 Or savage skins ; some painted like a sword, 
 Blue as the skies with starry mimickry ; 
 And some with flowing locks, and some all shorn : 
 Earth's brood before her fall. See how they gaze, 
 "With wondrous visage, on the unknown sun ! 
 
MAGROS. 15 
 
 And in tlie unaccustomed air their arms, 
 Brawny, tliey wave, as if to try their strength 
 A novel world to shape. The forest shakes, 
 Down dash the mighty trunks, with rustling sweep 
 Those ancient arbours fall, and in the air 
 Fly the huge boughs ; nor roots conate with Chaos 
 Their energy withstand. Beneath their toil 
 Plains clothed with pastures taller than their kine 
 Expand their waving breast ; beneath their rafts 
 Their frightened streams the crowded rivers hide. 
 Or yield them passage on their ice-bound wave. 
 Nature's stern bridge. And soon this stalwart race, 
 Panting with youth, where'er their rivers guide. 
 Follow in pastoral pomp, their daring hearts 
 Of sunnier worlds jirophetic ; brighter plains 
 And cities glittering. 
 
 XI. 
 
 ' Sullied by their tramp 
 The snowy summits of the dusky mountains 
 That guard the cultured earth ; the pathless crags 
 
16 MAGROS. 
 
 Eclio tlieir wandering clamour ; and wild birds 
 
 Shriek at these wilder things, and shrieking fly. 
 
 Emerging from the clouds, they gaze upon 
 
 The world's exj)anding lustre, o'er whose dream, 
 
 By the cold rivers of their iron land. 
 
 The warriors oft had mused. They gazed, they paused. 
 
 Some shouted, and some wept, some on their knees 
 
 Aching fell down, and praised their uncouth gods ; 
 
 With feairful rapture to the sturdy necks 
 
 Whose courage they had rivalled, till the sight 
 
 Of all their hopes recalled their womanhood, 
 
 The women clung, or in the rising air 
 
 Their children tossed, the fragrance of the land 
 
 To taste. 
 
 XII. 
 
 * As when upon the darkened heights 
 The eagle loves, winter propels her clouds. 
 Amid the crash of falling elements. 
 To sudden life the dried up torrents swell ; 
 
MACROS. 17 
 
 The youthful cataracts leap with shouting glee, 
 Kobed like a high-born prodigal, in spray 
 Glittering, his recent treasure to the plain 
 Pouring, so did these novel nations dash 
 Downward, the barriers of the startled world 
 Swept by their raging tide. With trembling haste, 
 His idle sword each pale-eyed monarch seized. 
 And silken warriors summoned. All were mute 
 And mazed, save muttering priests, with faithless fear 
 To altars clinging. Down their feeble legions 
 Tramples the wilderness. Temple and tower, 
 All the long trophies of forgotten years, 
 Heroic column and triumjDhal arc, 
 Yield to their forest birth : the golden harvests 
 They grasp, the oily tribute of the groves 
 Cherished, they seize, and in the vineyards revel ; 
 Dash from its clustering form the blood of grape. 
 Pressing the imknown fruit with maddened glance. 
 
18 MAGROS. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 ' Reclining on my pensive sj^ear, I mused 
 And watched the tide of man ; the fresh'ning flood 
 Subsiding, now some mountain glimjoses yields 
 Of the new earth, and o'er the horizon dark 
 Of order faintly spreads a twilight gleam. 
 ''Whence shall arise," I cried, "the Sun of Life 
 To bathe this earth in beauty ? Whence the beam 
 These beings in their duteous task to guide, 
 And cheer them in their sorrow ? Whence the law 
 All shall obey, all love ; their nature's depth 
 Gauging, to which the caverns of their heart 
 Shall echo promj)t and glad? " 
 
 XIV. 
 
 ' The sound of wings 
 Passed thro' the sky : invisible, indeed, 
 Their wavy flight ; but o'er the mountain peak, 
 Like an aerial crown, a chorus floats. 
 
MAGROS. 19 
 
 Angelic choir, for favoured ears alone, 
 Thrilling and sweet, the voice of Seraphim. 
 
 XV. 
 
 ' ''gi, ^oltmir ^^mplc is the soul of man, 
 
 His saintly structures but its type. The fane, 
 
 Dark pyramid, and jewelled shrine, devout, 
 
 INIusic and lustre hovering round the spell 
 
 Of radiant altars; pomp of stoled priest, 
 
 And images divine ; ivory and gems, 
 
 Or tinted like the twilight ; mystic mien 
 
 The wreathing incense jjiercing with their gaze 
 
 Seraphic ; shadows of celestial thoughts 
 
 Around that holier altar, man's high heart. 
 
 Clustering, are these. The daedal faith had died 
 
 Of the old world : forms graceful that once breathed 
 
 Immortal accents to adoring ears, 
 
 Their pinions waving in the darkened air, 
 
 Had sorrowing fled. Of choral youth no band 
 
20 MAGROS. 
 
 The bright god hailed thro' realms of golden space 
 Careering ; from their sculptured urns no more 
 Poui'ed river-gods their wave ; no shadowy grove 
 Gleamed with the glancing nymph. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 ' " The Master rose 
 In starry Galilee : amid its groves, 
 Hamlets, and thymy mountains, l^y the marge 
 Of lakes serene, to form the world anew 
 A voice celestial breathed. Auspicious words ! 
 Shining and sweetly sage. He glides along 
 Blessing and blessed ; each glance a truth, each smile 
 A paradise. Three years divine, than tale 
 Of Troy more rare, the enraptured earth inspired 
 A heavenly guest ; man's sweet infirmities 
 Or soothed or shared ; could weep o'er human graves, 
 On human hearts could lean. 
 
MAGROS. 21 
 
 XVII. 
 
 ' " Yet lurked within 
 This cradle of all truth a clamorous brood 
 Base-born and brain-distempered, soon to riot 
 In a scared world. Wild dogmas, frenzied creeds, 
 And doctrines changing hke a waning moon 
 That leaves a starless n-ght. Now, truth is found 
 And voted false to-morrow, like a gem 
 That proves a pebble ; now a maniac voice 
 The invisible describes, the unknown defines. 
 Jargonic strife ! Man fights for syllables 
 And worships words ; while warlike sanhedrims 
 And priestly courts hail comets as if stars 
 That led to Deity. Celestial will 
 In vain man probes. Not darkness all where eye 
 Human opaquely wanders. Truth is veiled, 
 But with a schekinah of D "(13^ ling lig^t." 
 
22 MAGROS. 
 
 'Ceased the great song; and as I wistful stood, 
 
 As men will stand wlien something bright has past 
 
 Lingering with hope it may return, — behold 
 
 Two youths advance, for on their tender cheek 
 
 Still bloomed the down. Not stars with equal light. 
 
 Serenely shining; not fraternal flowers 
 
 On the same fragrant stem ; not sparkling birds 
 
 Trilling on sunny branches gushing lays. 
 
 And making all the woods a roundelay ; 
 
 No ! not tAvo antelopes in sportive love 
 
 Exulting in their wilderness, some spot 
 
 Of palmy springs, — more fancifully fair 
 
 Than these same mountain minions. Tho' alike 
 
 Yet different, for their comely forms the same 
 
 As in still waters to o'ergazing shapes 
 
 Shadows aj^pear. ]\Iore solemn was the first 
 
 And more assured his mien ; for round his neck 
 
 Twined Avas his fairer brother's arm, Avho cast 
 
MAGROS. 23 
 
 His sight upon tlie earth, tho' oft uplooking 
 
 And steahng fearful glances. Solemn shone 
 
 As Asian night, brow lofty, glowing eye, 
 
 The duskier imp ; upon his front there gleamed 
 
 A ruby cross : a ruby crown adorned 
 
 His brother's brow, if thro' those mystic veins 
 
 Fraternal ichor ran. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 "Celestial Knight," 
 In dulcet tone exclaimed the darker child, 
 "Two pages in thy perilous emprise 
 We seek to be." I answering, with a smile 
 Of fondness more than wonder, "Who are ye 
 That in this high and icy wilderness, 
 Shunned even by the eagle, take your course 
 Serene and beautiful ? " " Spirits are we. 
 And tho' the star-crowned choristers above, 
 Eternal praises round the Eternal Throne 
 c 
 
24 MAGROS. 
 
 Chanting, few emanations from the form 
 Divine, more reverence, than the mighty sprite 
 In heaven called Magros, even akin to thee. 
 Me Faith they call; my brother Fealty hight." 
 
 XX. 
 
 ' " Joyful am I my perilous emprise 
 Summons such fellowship. The troubled earth 
 Awaits our coming." At these words, unfurling 
 My mighty wings, that on the glaciers' glare 
 Flung a quick shade, to each enormous plume 
 A spirit clung, as on some tawny mane 
 The radiant dew; then in the difficult air 
 Soaring, thy envoy, Magros, ere the sun 
 Poured his last legacy of golden light. 
 With Faith and Fealty on earth descended. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 'A place of tombs it seemed^ and ruin vast. 
 Majestic in its awful misery : 
 
MAGROS. 25 
 
 Grey walls and mouldering arches^ columns lone 
 High in the purple air, or massy peak 
 Of some eternal pyramid ; huge fanes 
 Seeming the shattered fragments of some mount 
 The flame had split and scorched ; and mighty wrecks 
 Once palaces and golden roofs, though now 
 From out theii' dank and tangled side uprise 
 Cypress and pine. And twilight in this place 
 Perpetual, save some scanty stars their rays 
 Fhckering and red, around the desert shedding, 
 And gilding ruin with a gloomy glare. 
 Nor human life was marked, tho' in the groves, 
 And ghastly branches of the blasted trees, 
 Brooded black shapes ; while, ever and anon, 
 The shadow of a dragon gleamed below. 
 Or serpent restless roimd some column coiled. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 ' And in the heart of this strange soUtude 
 Arose a spreading mass, which first we deemed 
 c 2 
 
26 MAGROS. 
 
 Crumbling acropolis or citadel : 
 
 But nearer viewing, nature not, but art, 
 
 Might claims its parentage ; for gold was there, 
 
 And worked, it seemed, by rare artificers : 
 
 Jewels of price, and choicest sculpturing. 
 
 It seemed a glorious thing, yet what we knew not ; 
 
 It was so huge, so shadowy, and so worn ! 
 
 And seated in its front, upon the earth, 
 
 There was a form : some granite god we deemed, 
 
 Or king of palmy Nile, colossal shapes, 
 
 Such as Syene's rosy quarries yield 
 
 To Memphian art ; Horus, Osiris called, 
 
 Or Amenoph, who on the Theban j^lain 
 
 With magic melody the sun salutes ; 
 
 Or he, far mightier, to whose conquering car 
 
 Monarchs were yoked, Rameses : by the Greeks 
 
 Sesostris styled. And yet no sculptor's art 
 
 Moulded this shape, for form it seemed of flesh. 
 
 Yet motionless ; its dim unlustrous orbs 
 
 Gazing in stilly vacancy, its cheek 
 
MAGROS. 27 
 
 Grey as its hairs, which, thin as they might seem. 
 No breath disturbed ; a solemn countenance, 
 Not sorrowful, tho' full of woe sublime. 
 As if despair were now a distant dream 
 Too dim for memory. By its gloomy side 
 A sliivered sceptre lie, and trampled crown ; 
 And on its robes the dust of age rested. 
 Crusting the Tyrian purple like a stream 
 Of frozen lava. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 ' And altho' my sight 
 Full often on this orb divine hath gazed, 
 Before this silent shape in awe I stood, 
 And my immortal jDages to my side 
 Clung with a trembling clutch. And as I watched 
 With breathless scrutiny that reverend face, 
 Behold a tear, a solitary tear, 
 
 Broke from those ancient eyeballs ; down that wan, 
 Majestic visage rolling ; then it sighed. 
 
28 ^ MAGROS. 
 
 Not loud, yet strangely tlirilling, and that sigh 
 Eepeat unearthly echoes : on each branch 
 Blasted, their mystic wings the visions flap ; 
 The dragons, in their dens ol3Scene, their tails 
 Lash flaming, mid the serpents' gloomy hiss. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 * " And who art thou, that in this wilderness 
 Seem Desolation's monarch, tho' discrowned ? " 
 I said, and on the venerable form 
 Gently my lance I dropped : whereat he turned. 
 Yet spoke not, tho' he gazed with a strange glance. 
 As if contempt to wonderment had changed 
 His guests beholding. Then there came a voice. 
 " I am the Spirit of an Ancient Throne, 
 And mourn Imperial days, that ne'er can be 
 Forgotten or recalled." And then he turned 
 And gazed upon his ruins. 
 
 ' " Know'st thou not 
 Power comes from God ?" I cried ; " all earthly rule 
 
MAGROS. 29 
 
 But shadow of His light above. The world 
 When first He formed, as to a ship compact 
 The framer joius a rudder, thus on earth 
 Power was the sjDring the Architect Divine 
 Implanted for its guidance ; 't is a force 
 Men cannot form, tho' when, with eager hand. 
 He, from some fading brother, sceptre grasps. 
 Creator deems himself, tho' verily 
 He but inherits ; as in warlike games 
 Bold dancers seize the torch another yields ; 
 The torch they seize, but not the flame create. 
 And who seized thine ? Upon the earth it lies : 
 If thou hast lost, another has not won : 
 Thy torch lies dropped, thou hast not yielded it. 
 And at thy ancient feet now smouldering lies. 
 Then up ! forget thy slips, that none have marked. 
 And wave thy olden sceptre ! " 
 
 ' His dim head 
 More quickly turning, thus the form replied : 
 "And who art thou, that thus upon the night 
 
30 MAGROS. 
 
 Of my dark fortunes flash witli lightning words, 
 Stirring a tempest in my soul long spent ? 
 The stalwart Gaul that struck my curule state, 
 And plucked my beard in the Forum's court, 
 Were but thy henchman. Alaric himself. 
 The last wild pageant of my shadowy foes, 
 Would sink beneath the flashing of thy mien. 
 I know thee not ; imless indeed thou art 
 The memory of Mars, as I am but 
 The dream of his adorer ? " 
 
 XXV. 
 
 " I am one, 
 Envoy of Him from whom all gods descend. 
 Or Jove or Mars, — for what are they but forms 
 Fantastical that clothe the attributes 
 Of dread Omnipotence ? Cheer up, great ghost ! 
 Imperial phantom, rise ! " Obedient then 
 To my quick glance, my pages prompt advance : 
 First Faith with solemn mien, but most assm'ed ; 
 
MAGROS. 31 
 
 Him Fealty followed with a trembling step, 
 And raised the great Forlorn. Myself, I took 
 In my wide grasp that long-forgotten throne, 
 Like some vast Titan when he clasped a rock 
 To scale the skies. High in the startled air 
 I raised the mass sublime ; then to the earth 
 I dashed it on its base. Shrieked the wild birds ; 
 A death-gi-oan from their caves the dragons sighed ; 
 And lifeless fi-om their columns fell the snakes : 
 Unmarked by me ; for when the fell Simoom 
 Breathes o'er Arabia's waste, and in the sky. 
 Lurid and wild, the sandy pillars rise. 
 And the swift soil in scorching eddies whirls 
 O'er crouching camels, and o'er rearing steeds 
 And riders prostrate, with its fatal sweep. 
 Like some demoniac pageant passing : never 
 "Was such a murky tumult. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 ' Yet subsides 
 That mighty storm ; and on my startled sight 
 
32 MAGROS. 
 
 What marvel now ! Ui^on that fatal scene 
 
 The eternal twilight with its blood-red eje&, 
 
 As if the tears of centuries had tinged 
 
 Those fevered orbs, gazes no more ; but there, 
 
 Bright with the promise of the sun, expands 
 
 A vault of azure light. All hideous forms 
 
 Vanished : from bills of sparkling birds a chant 
 
 Matin arose fresh as the new-born dew 
 
 That quivered on their plumes ; and, mid the wild 
 
 Of shrubs and flowers making the new earth 
 
 Balmy with perfume, in her ferny form 
 
 Rustled the hare, and like a glittering gem 
 
 Gleamed the gTeen lizard. Yet indeed still rose 
 
 Those wrecks sublime of empire : ruin there 
 
 Still reigned with hoary rule ; but o'er her wan 
 
 And bony form an ivy mantle grace 
 
 Had gently thrown ; and her denuded scalp 
 
 Old Time had circled with a gorgeous tiar 
 
 Of starry parasites. 
 
MAGROS. 33 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 ' Upon bis throne 
 I raised the ancient Spirit : at his feet 
 The pages rest ; and as his fallen sceptre 
 Within his hand I thrust, as with a blast 
 Of thousand trumpets from the horizon far 
 Mounts the proud sun, upon that reverend head, 
 The twilight of decay so long had cooled, 
 Falling with genial beam. Its mighty cirque 
 Opens with swelling force the orb of day ; 
 And forth an eagle springs, within its beak 
 A triple crown. Over that ancient throne 
 Thrice did it whirl, and then that crown it dropped. 
 Upon my spear's bright head with clashing clank 
 The prize I caught, and with triumphant heart 
 Upon that grey eternal brow I placed 
 That Triple- Crown — the symbol of his power 
 Over the future lands of joy and woe, 
 And that dim isthmus of a middle realm 
 Where Expiation hopes. 
 
34 MAGEOS. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 ' There rose a sound, 
 Distinct and delicate, as airy shell 
 A child discovers on a lonely shore. 
 And presses to his agitated ear 
 Melodious ; or the hum of vagrant bees 
 In some new- entered garden. Louder still, 
 Like fall of waters from some unseen hill. 
 In valleys wandering heard, or distant roar 
 Of sea resounding. 'Tis the tramp of hosts. 
 And hum of nations ! On the mountain tops 
 Their standards wrestle with the clouds. Each black 
 Defile and dark ravine pours forth its pomp. 
 Round our imperial altars, kneeling, crowd. 
 The nations of the earth. Victim forlorn, 
 And votary too, of ever-torturing doubt 
 And restless wit, now close thy dread account 
 With these sharp creditors. The oracles 
 Echoing of our high speech, devoted man, 
 Forget thy verbal fantasies. Anoint 
 
MAGROS. 35 
 
 Tliy visage with tlie sacred dust our foot 
 
 Celestial hallows. View with passionate awe 
 
 The mystical omnipotence who breathes 
 
 Unsoldiered edicts to a martial world : 
 
 Before whose ban quail armies ; whose right arm 
 
 An Emperor may support ; whose sacred mule 
 
 A King alone may guide ; and mightier far 
 
 Precedes whose preternatural panoply 
 
 The Ineffable himself, the unbreathed Name — 
 
 Spirit Supreme, that o'er the darkling deep 
 
 Moved with creating wings what time the Light 
 
 Sprung like an arrow thro' the eternal gloom — 
 
 All-sympathising Eome ! a favoured child, 
 
 Man gazing on thy smile celestial ! Heart 
 
 Gushing and glistening eye, he fondly hailed 
 
 A common parent, in his fear a stay. 
 
 And in his sorrow clinging to a breast 
 
 That ever pardoned. In thy spring-born rule 
 
 Mellowed the wintry heart of man. Arts bloomed, 
 
 And Learning budded. Softening Faith burst forth, 
 
36 MAGROS. 
 
 And made all gentle as a balmy May ; 
 Wliile on contending sceptres meekly dropped 
 The peace-compelling Crozier. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 * On his throne, 
 That touched the skies and in the prostrate earth 
 Deep fixed its roots stupendous, sate sublime 
 The God-like Pontiff: crouching at its base 
 A kneeling ^yorld ; various their form ; their garb, 
 Their language, various — like alone in faith ! 
 The children of the South, with burning zeal 
 Ecstatic, wild ; of stormier souls the test 
 Their flashing eyes. The Northman's heart devout, 
 Deep, and serenely gazing with a glance 
 Stern as his clime. Hark ! the ascending prayer. 
 As universal dew, the vesper beads 
 That nim-like Nature tells. Send forth their voices 
 The mountains of tlie world ; each stream its choir ; 
 The simultaneous cities and the Avoods 
 
MAGROS. 37 
 
 Echo that song sublime, and o'er the sea 
 Tribute their praise the isles. But silent now, 
 For from his vest, in likeness of a dove, 
 A vase forth draws that mighty Presbyter. 
 A crowd of crowned beings romid his throne 
 Gather ; of earth the consecrated kings : 
 On them that vase he pours ; a deed is done 
 That takes Time's breath away — of mighty faith 
 A regal baptism. To each purple robe 
 A nation clings. To heavenly delegates 
 A willing fealty what soul denies ? 
 Thus all its harsher attributes are lost 
 To stern Authority ; Obedience now 
 Worship becomes. Thus Loyalty is born. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 ' Whoso may gaze upon the firmament, 
 Upon his golden throne the Sun shall view ; 
 Or if indeed that softer hour he seek, 
 When purple Night her solemn drapery 
 
38 MAGEOS. 
 
 Draws round that royal brow, the gentler Moon, 
 
 Entrusted Eegent of the vacant throne, 
 
 His awfol sceptre waves ; and far and near 
 
 A starry nation shines, in form and force 
 
 Different, and hue and state. Some like the gems 
 
 Blazing that beauty loves ; a diamond here, 
 
 There ruby's rosy flash, or quivering ray 
 
 Bright as a serpent's eye, the emerald shoots ; 
 
 The shadowy lustre of the modest pearl. 
 
 Or opal's clouded iris : here again 
 
 Most lavish heaps of coin, the maddening ore 
 
 For which men fight and women love, they say : 
 
 All-fascinating gold ! There lone and bright 
 
 In its deep solitude, some single star 
 
 Glows like a holy Eremite entranced 
 
 With flashing visions ; here a trail of splendour 
 
 That seems a plume ; like fruit, or fairer flowers. 
 
 Clustering, are these ; while o'er the expansive sheen 
 
 A bright suffusion glows like veiled shrines 
 
 Dazzling with oracles. All various these ! 
 
MAGHOS. 39 
 
 Yet all is harmony and order hushed ; 
 
 While round the sovereign throne their blazing cars 
 
 The mighty planets guide, and shine the spheres 
 
 Whose being regulates this radiant realm. 
 
 Whoso within the mighty woods may lie, 
 
 What time refulgent June her votary calls 
 
 Upon the fragrant turf his form to fling, 
 
 And build bright castles in a summer sky, 
 
 Shall view the mien of some majestic oak, 
 
 Spreading its noble branches in the air, 
 
 Upon the bosom of the heated earth 
 
 Deep shadows casting. Mark its awful trunk ; 
 
 Column superb ! A navy in its core ! 
 
 Firm in the roots of ages, see it shoot 
 
 Its valiant members from its sapful heart ; 
 
 From these broad boughs dependent branches spring. 
 
 And gentler shoots from them, till in the end 
 
 Some slender spray, whereon a little bird 
 
 May sing in innocence. While thick as bowers, 
 
 Or quivering in the breeze, the lively leaves 
 
 D 
 
40 MAGROS. 
 
 Rejoice in their existence. Beautiful 
 The starry heavens and the leafy woods ! 
 And, as around a regal sun may roll 
 Triumphant planets ; as from parent trunk 
 Swell the wide branches and the vigorous boughs ; 
 Thus did a bright and strong nobility 
 Gather around the glory of a throne ! 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 ' The earth is but the shadow of the skies, 
 
 Man of the earth. Power reigns alike in each. 
 
 Upon this orb, in veiled majesty. 
 
 Unseen, unlimited ! In nature's realm 
 
 Rules the resistless sun, and kings on earth 
 
 Are gods and blazing lights. In them alone, 
 
 And in their delegates, the noble streams 
 
 These royal sources feed, should power subsist : 
 
 For chosen few its use, tho' sovereign care 
 
 The multitude may challenge. They whose wants 
 
 Press with sharp spur upon their jaded sides 
 
MAGROS. 41 
 
 Reck only of tlie goal ; to passing scenes 
 
 Sparing no glance. The labourer's toilsome world 
 
 The urgent Present, but a lagging hind 
 
 Posterity. Now provident is Power : 
 
 And since men struggling for their daily life 
 
 Think only of the life for which they strive, 
 
 Deep in the strata of the human heart 
 
 The seeds of Aristocracy are sown ; 
 
 A people's pride the ardent atmosphere 
 
 That fans them into splendour, 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 ' He who is bred 
 Within an honoured place, and from the womb 
 Unto his grave nought sordid views ; but taught 
 By all the glories of his ancestors 
 Them to remember, does himself respect : 
 Around whose infant image all men's thoughts 
 Cluster with hope ; who mixing with the crow d 
 Feels like a trophy in the mai-ket-place ; 
 
42 MAGROS. 
 
 He is tlieir own : ^vlio from his lofty state, 
 As from some tower, tlie social regions views 
 Unclonded by tlie vajiour or the vale 
 Bounding a vulgar vision, but intent 
 To make the Law more loved, the leisure gives 
 That LaAv hath given to him ; who chases wisdom 
 Within her treasured coverts : keen his sport 
 O'er what he finds deep musing; or to talk 
 AVith scholar ripe or brainful traveller 
 May love, and artist in his drooping hour : 
 This man, thus honoured, set apart, refined, 
 Serene and courteous, learned, thoughtful, brave, 
 As full of charity as noble pomp. 
 Pledge in the tempests of the world, the stream 
 Of culture shall not ebb : the Noble this 
 Mankind demands, and Nations love to trust. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 ' And such are those the godlike structure framed 
 My plan devised. Witness ye Stars sublime, 
 
MAGROS. 43 
 
 Bright ministers that on the shadowy breast 
 
 Of passionate Eartli, watchful, and hushed, and still, 
 
 Gaze like pure sisters on the sleeping wrath 
 
 Of some dark brother ! Thou, serenest Moon ! 
 
 In purest a:ther sailing, as the foam 
 
 Flung on the purple wave, as white and free ; 
 
 Or pearl in azure cave, whose lustrous beam 
 
 With breathless grasp the daring diver plucks 
 
 And then uprising from the stifling wave 
 
 Before some princess throws. And thou great Light I 
 
 Proud in the morning air with golden plume 
 
 Prophetic of the crimson victory 
 
 Thy twilight tent shall crown ! Ye ambient Winds, 
 
 That course about the quarters of the globe, 
 
 And visit all their fortunes ! Ye have seen. 
 
 Ye great and lesser lights, ye envoys swift, 
 
 Ye too have witnessed, the eternal Earth 
 
 And all its loveliness. Have I not clothed 
 
 Its golden breast with grain, and made each land 
 
 A garden of green trees, and winged the wave 
 
44 MAGROS. 
 
 With snowy plumes, the tribute of his climes 
 
 Wafting to pampered man ? Europa's gift 
 
 Of dajdal arts ; and Afric's sultry spoil, 
 
 Rare tusks, and precious dust, and wavy pomp 
 
 Of tropic plumage ; and the teeming dower 
 
 Of dusky Asia, and the regions twin 
 
 New-born from out the wilderness of waves 
 
 Like stars the sailor loves; and golden isles 
 
 Eich clustering, sweet Canaries, soft Azores ? 
 
 Have not I raised fair cities like the clouds 
 
 Bathed in creative blaze, of shadowy eve 
 
 The passing pageant ; palace and theatre 
 
 Columnar trophy, arch of victory, 
 
 Grey aqueducts the deep green hills across, 
 
 And arched stream, and with a nation's throng 
 
 High causeways echoing ? From the land's deep faith 
 
 Unrivalled temples, aisles of solemn shade, 
 
 Transcendent with prismatic light each nave, 
 
 And clustered pillars, leafy-crowned, on high 
 
 Bearing the branched roof, within whose bowers 
 
MAGROS. 45 
 
 Lives cliequercd music ; cliauntry delicate, 
 
 And sj^arkling slirine, and airy pinnacles, 
 
 And steeples blending -witli their kindred skies ? 
 
 What temple of old Rome, or throne supreme 
 
 Of Capitolian God, or lurid shrine 
 
 In whose dim groves with swift and streaming swords 
 
 The Salian priests invoked the bloody shade 
 
 They called a deity ; or that vast dome 
 
 Of pantheistic faith, sublimely soaring. 
 
 Like its wide creed, within the liberal air? 
 
 Or say what lightsome fane of airy Greece, 
 
 Delicate Athens, with her sparkling crest 
 
 Of snowy columns ; obeliscal pomp 
 
 Of halls Pharaonic, sphinxlike shapes, and thrones 
 
 Colossal ; these divinest sanctuaries 
 
 Can rival ? 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 ' As a wind born in the south. 
 Odorous and soft, the enamoured earth enchants. 
 
4G MAGHOS. 
 
 Bewitches man the voice of poet.s. Sweet 
 
 The charm of verse creative, or in halls 
 
 With cedar roofed, or where the cottar's thatch 
 
 Screens throbbing hearts. And say what mood 
 
 entrancing 
 The feudal Harp e'er failed ? Whether the skies 
 Earth's secret womb, or iinplumbed deep, may yield 
 The mystic shapes, or in man's passions find 
 The brooding elements to fill a world 
 With breathing conduct. Spell sublime is Song ; 
 Whether the laurel-crowned votary 
 Of some high race the rising fortunes chant 
 Or fall of ancient line ; and ebb and flow 
 Of Freedom's sacred fate ; or in the flash 
 Of mimic life, the secrets of the soul 
 Subtle reveal, and touch the gasping hearts 
 Of thrilling theatres ; or in lonely depths 
 Pour forth his passion, and a country save, 
 Or woman charm. 
 
MAGROS. 47 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 '■ Tlie Poet has a brother, 
 A fellow-huntsman, in the ilital quest 
 Whose sj)oil is beauty. Oft his doom perverse 
 When on his raptured sight some radiant nymph 
 May seem to rise, like baffled hounds thrown off, 
 His fancies fail, and with revengeful fang 
 Feed on his tortured heart. A bitter flite 
 Is his who broods o'er beauty. Yet in vain 
 Unto the scenes and common moods of life 
 Man turns and would be worldly. In his breast 
 Passion supreme, needing transcendent types 
 The earthborn hour to soothe. Could Hellas boast 
 Forms more sm-passing than the breathing shades 
 The feudal tablets fill ? Seraphic saints, 
 Of whose blue eye the dying ecstasy 
 lieflects approaching Paradise, and forms 
 Martyred, whose sliapes celestial make their doom 
 A fitting fate ; or on the all-favoured breast 
 
48 MAGEOS. 
 
 The Boy-God slumbering in a dream divine, 
 While the transfigured Mother, with a glance 
 Sweet yet most solemn, of a state too high 
 For speech, seems conscious. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 ' Ye mighty Witnesses, 
 Once more the tribute of your test ! Say who 
 The secrets of your dwellings reads ; reveals 
 Your mystic courses ? Hath he not, this Man, 
 This atom of a moment, measured Space, 
 And given law to Time ? In vain ye dazzle, 
 Ye Stars ! his piercing eye, tho' night herself 
 Enhance your lustre. Moon ! thou art his slave, 
 Chained to his waters, silver-linked ; toil on 
 And make his waves obedient. Thou fierce Sun ! 
 In spite of all thy pride, the moment comes 
 When even thy brow grows pale. Man knows thy 
 
 doom ; 
 And when the dim and quivering hour arrives 
 
MAGROS. 49 
 
 And shuddering Nature to her centre shrinks 
 And thrills in all her pulses, Man alone 
 Fearless, with front erect, the fray sublime 
 Observes, and wisdom fr'om thy baffled power 
 Gathers. Nor triumph, haughty Winds ! your rage 
 May level palaces, and tear the roots 
 Of mighty woods ; the children of my sway, 
 They fear ye not, but in your arrogant teeth 
 Will steer their course sublime ; and for the rest 
 !Man has his thunder — Gods can have no more. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 ' Thus guided fi'om its source, hath poured its stream 
 
 The Genius of the World ; from its dim birth 
 
 Of green and silent fountains, till its tide, 
 
 Tranquil, abundant, of each wilderness 
 
 Hath made a teeming land ; by some wild rock 
 
 If for a moment let, the cataract 
 
 Hath proved the torrent's power — the clearing course 
 
 More bright and strong. High influence of my rule 
 
50 MAGROS. 
 
 Attest majestic nations and the deeds 
 
 Of men heroic. Lav/s profound, and Customs 
 
 Genial, sweet Modes, a nation's fondness brooding 
 
 O'er some archaic age ; and Prejudice, 
 
 At which fools scoff, the precious fruit unknown 
 
 That husky rind enfolds ; and old Prescription, 
 
 Tranquilly smiling, with Security, 
 
 His twin-born blood ; and Rights of honest worth. 
 
 The cheap reward ; and Privilege that finds 
 
 The Future's champion in each honoured arm : 
 
 All, from the nature of the race, have sprung ; 
 
 Their wants, their wishes, even their tastes foreseen 
 
 And cultured into use. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 * But not for Man 
 Alone this scheme I framed. As in the dawn 
 Of Time, when earth was fresh, and only he 
 Stood in its centre with his joy unshared. 
 Unshared his heart and hope, something was short. 
 
MAGROS. 51 
 
 Aliho' divine device : so Avlien I 'held 
 Of that old world the obsequies, I marked 
 Cause of its dark decay. A silken slave 
 Erst in a tyrant's hall, fair Woman moved. 
 With step permissive ; trifle of the hour, 
 Or bauble flung aside Avith cold disdain, 
 Of higher deeds man musing. Goddess now ; 
 But heaven descending, in celestial love 
 Man inspiration finds. A teeming spring 
 Of heart-ennobling fancies and of thoughts 
 Crystalline. O'er his various life she throws 
 Her ever-varying spell. With all his moods 
 Magicly blending ; sigh or smile, she shares 
 His being, and the philtre of her power 
 Unceasing Sympathy ! 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 ' On the high throne 
 My rival yields her grace, behold her now I 
 Lo I from the halo of the misty earth 
 
52 MAGROS. 
 
 A vision rises in the plains of space : 
 The spectre of a nation, wild and red 
 With parricidal gore ; and high they wave 
 Their flaming torches with a maniac glare, 
 In ruin revelling. Their fertile lands, 
 Broad fields, and sunny vineyards, orchards gay 
 With autumn's rosy harvest, Havock now 
 With panting lungs, and vision like the ray 
 Of sun eclipsed, over its blooming breast 
 Hunts with her hell-hounds : ever and anon 
 By the hot marge of some tumultuous stream 
 With shade of flaming town or antique house 
 All red and glimmering, their infernal thirst 
 Slaking ; the water with their forky tongues 
 Lapping, and lips besmeared with bloody foam ; 
 And all the charities of life are vanished. 
 And all the bonds of sweet existence broken. 
 Sons stab their sires ; hurrying fathers bear 
 To merciless tribunals whispers dire 
 To their own oflspring ; in blasi^heniing streets 
 
MAGROS. 53 
 
 The priest is slaughtered ; Age no reverence finds, 
 
 And Youth no mercy ; but the wrinkled brow, 
 
 The blooming cheek, the wintry lock of life, 
 
 And the fair vision of the springlike face 
 
 That makes us ponder o'er its summer doom, 
 
 Alike appeal in vain ! On all alike 
 
 Tramples the hoof of Anarchy, that steed 
 
 That hath no rider. Everywhere resound 
 
 Cry of despair and multitudinous wail. 
 
 And in the crowning city of the land 
 
 An altar, or a scaffold, in the sky 
 
 Rises severe, a victim on its crest 
 
 Prepared and bound, a victim like a day 
 
 Of cloudless heaven, than her fairest sex 
 
 A woman fairer. O'er her head a flag 
 
 Of triple tint, each hue an emblem meet : 
 
 Red for their blood, and Purple for their shame, 
 
 And White for all their craven cruelty. 
 
 Floats with denouncing spell. — Equality ! 
 
 Charm maddening, in whose rites bewildering fall 
 
54 MAGROS. 
 
 Altars and trampled justice ; arts destroyed, 
 And man more savage than the beasts becomes, 
 His brethren in the bloody wilderness 
 Once styled his world. 
 
 XL. 
 
 * Equality ! The cry 
 Of feeble spirits. Is it Truth ? Or plea 
 Flimsy the heart rejects, tho' lips may move 
 In plausible assent for wily end ? 
 Is Nature equal ? Doth She say to man, 
 Go mark the mountain in the vale subside ; 
 The ocean and the brook their waters share ; 
 See the bright stars with equal radiance blaze, 
 With equal sweets the fragrant flowers bloom ? 
 And thou. Leviathan, wdiose heaving bulk 
 Calls the quick colour from the sailor's cheek, 
 What time some wave like to a snow-tipped ridge, 
 Long, dark, and desolate, while whitely foam 
 The cresting waters, solitary wave, 
 
MAGROS. 55 
 
 Itself an ocean, with the lowering sky, 
 
 Blending its rising form, its mighty wings 
 
 South-east, south west, extending, from the Cape 
 
 Of valiant Yasco its feJl course sweeps on ; 
 
 While mid the darkened world with forky light 
 
 A single flash reveals, the shriek insane 
 
 Of moaning sea-birds tell the direful fate 
 
 Of those that brave the tempest ! Such thy power, 
 
 Awful Leviathan ! Yet must thou quit 
 
 Thy coral thrones and sparry j)alaces, 
 
 For lo ! the minnow in his majesty 
 
 Thy trident claims. Nor deem thy luckless lot 
 
 Amid thy royal peers luckless alone : 
 
 The sun-born eagle from his mountain throne 
 
 His course empyrean quits, and regal prey, 
 
 With twilight owl his sojourn, and in groves 
 
 Of gloom and humid sepulchres, his feast 
 
 Obscene. In truth, the spell of Nature's sway 
 
 Gradation : hence the faculty divme 
 
 Of Durability, from which alone 
 
 E 
 
56 MAGROS. 
 
 Order and Happiness and Life ; and hence 
 Of parts discordant one harmonious whole. 
 And fitter type for man will sophists find 
 Than this Supreme Creation ? Shall the world 
 This social atom forms reject the ties 
 That things divine can bear ? What veil, 
 Dark prophets of Equality, conceals 
 Of all your busy arts the fate ? Their end 
 To level not to raise : where equal all, 
 All are abased. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 * What constitutes a People ? not a crowd 
 Of vagrant beings like a locust horde 
 Over some fertile land their fatal wings 
 Fiuiing with fell intent. Not spawn obscure 
 Of slime-begotten entities, the fi:oth 
 Of some subsiding deluge, that a ray 
 Calls from their oozy womb, a doltish crew, 
 
MAGROS. 5 
 
 Staring with wonder on their misshaped selves, 
 And banqueting on berries. But the lore 
 Long centuries yield ; refined arts ; and faith, 
 Honoiu', and justice ; love of fatherland 
 By olden thought endeared ; the mystic spell 
 Moon-eyed Tradition weaves, that beauteous witch 
 Pouring her philtre in our shadowy hearts ; 
 And customs consecrate ancestral deeds 
 Embalming ; and high brotherhoods that place 
 Man's noble attributes before his sight 
 In constant life ; nor last, that discipline, 
 To cultured man instinctive, that the weak, 
 In their more able brethren, leaders apt 
 Prompts to confess. In multitudes thus formed, 
 A throne majestic yielding, dignity 
 Of ermined noble, gentry like their hearths 
 Cordial and bright, and hallowed life of priest, 
 And reverend magistrates whose voice serene 
 Stills human passion — we a People find. 
 
 E 2 
 
58 MAGKOS. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 ' When were men equal ? Not the broidered stole, 
 
 The starry breast, the coronetted brow. 
 
 Banner, and golden spur, and ordered state, 
 
 Form Aristocracy — mere arts to give 
 
 A body to Opinion ; but the power. 
 
 Resistless and enduring, Genius wields, 
 
 Marking the man inspired from the crowd 
 
 That gaze upon his glory. He who leads 
 
 Armies victorious ; or his subtle soul 
 
 Eeveals in stately councils ; he who makes 
 
 The judgment-seat an oracle ; the seer 
 
 Pouring celestial balm on earthly woe ; 
 
 The merchant and his thousand argosies, 
 
 Bearing exotic tribute : by such men 
 
 Are nations formed and flourish. To the rose 
 
 Its fragrance not more native than to states 
 
 A class thus rising. Art is man's nature ; 
 
 His soul a gem needing the sculptor's skill 
 
MAaROS. 5 'J 
 
 To demonstrate its lustre : chased and carved, 
 
 And blazing in its pride, more natural far 
 
 Than when with shrouded ray it studs some cave 
 
 Gloomy and dank. INIost natural human lot 
 
 Wliere mind is most developed. Fate Man finds 
 
 In ancient sway, where Constancy inspire. 
 
 And Order ; rule that Time hath deftly formed, 
 
 And not Philosophers ; a prating crew, 
 
 With sciolistic babble ever prone 
 
 To prophesy the past. Society 
 
 Not their creation ; and the plastic hand 
 
 That modelled its proportions, or robust 
 
 Deep in the fathomed earth its base enfixed, 
 
 Not owned by them, tho' now their reckless tongues* 
 
 Slaver with drivelling afterthought, and wild 
 
 With impotence excited, dare to hope 
 
 They can create ; when all their burning zeal 
 
 Is but a fruitless phantasy, that mocks 
 
 Their ever-baffled efforts. 
 
60 MAGROS. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 * Were indeed 
 The creature of their care as their own thoughts, 
 Called systems^ simple ; if that sea profound, 
 The Human Mind, in which these reckless voyagers 
 Launch their light ballast, were the shallowy shoal 
 They vainly deem, their all-omitting charts 
 We then might trust. With them in life's vast sum 
 Men count alike as units ; selfsame worth. 
 Nature the same, to all their rules concede. 
 IMan is a being various as the skies 
 His earth that canopy, and as that earth 
 As manifold : the spirit of the winds. 
 Colour of cloud and ocean, style of soil. 
 The sunbeam's strength and current of the streams. 
 Stars' brightness, and the form of tree and flower, 
 Ductile and plastic with his nature blend 
 Their mystic properties : these form the man. 
 All-varying in the mountain and the plain ; 
 
MAGROS. 61 
 
 Desert or isle ; grove palmy, or tlie glare 
 Of glittering iceberg ; and no more the same 
 Than bear, dim sluggard, o'er the frozen mass 
 Crawling with slippery paw, and radiant spring 
 From out the crackling jungle. Moulded thus 
 Man's nature, and thus formed his nature's laws ; 
 Grey customs, ancient habits, genial modes. 
 That touch the heart and from its impulse spring, 
 And codes and constitutions long survive. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 * Equality ! Cry parricidal ! These 
 Made Inequality. And will they turn 
 JJ-pon the anxious eye their youthfiil dreams 
 That watched, and cherished them, and holy thoughts, 
 Life-knowledge, skill in arts, instilled, their weal 
 Pondering and planning? For a common drab, 
 Dropping her bastards in a highway ditch, 
 Desert their nursing mother ? To the winds 
 Of cold philosophy the tattered scroll 
 
62 MAGROS. 
 
 Vaunting of human Reason ! Nobler far 
 
 The faculty divine mankind impels, 
 
 Imagination on her airy throne 
 
 Of iris-painted clouds, with radiant smile 
 
 Of hope celestial in the burnished sky 
 
 Her starry sceptre waving. Far beyond 
 
 The vulgar visual Present man would strain 
 
 His anxious ken : the mystical Unknown, 
 
 Altar sublime, whereto its soaring flight 
 
 Thought wings ; and all its types, a higher fate 
 
 Prompting than his lone world, his soul enlist 
 
 In the ennobling struggle. Man must rise : 
 
 And as upon the breast of slumbering ocean 
 
 Unseen, unrecognised, the wind descends, 
 
 A dusky spot the practised mariner 
 
 Can scarce detect ; but soon the billows swell. 
 
 Then rise and foam, against the adverse shore 
 
 Pashing with thundering charge ; their spray ey crests 
 
 Glancmg and gleaming like the tossing plumes 
 
 Of hostile armies ; clamour infinite. 
 
MAGROS. 63 
 
 And vast confusion : thus, in human life 
 Upon the mass his spell creative breathes 
 The man of genius, thus their swelling hearts 
 Rise to his charm. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 ' But now forsooth I learn 
 Into a flat and stagnant pool the sea 
 Of Life must change ; tideless and waveless now, 
 Unsullied by the passion of the wind. 
 Its breakers lie. Profound cosmography I 
 Reposing in these starry halls above. 
 Behold once more before my presence bow 
 My gifted pages, they who erst I left 
 On earth, of kings and of their multitudes 
 The truest counsellors. But, ah ! how changed 
 Since that young hour when, on the mountain top. 
 My gladdened sight their first salute inspired. 
 Where now thy solemn brow, and mien assiu'ed. 
 Ennobling Faith ? Art thou some vagabond 
 
64 MAGROS. 
 
 The earth hath scouted ? Yea, this haggard look , 
 
 Air broken, trembling breath, some hypocrite 
 
 Baffled before my searching glance would crouch ? 
 
 Young Fealty too, that wert so brave and bright, 
 
 Withal so modest and so dutiful, 
 
 Art thou a traitor ? Hast thou left thy flag 
 
 A branded renegade ? flouted and jeered, 
 
 Running the gauntlet of a world's contempt ? 
 
 Hah ! on those fronts where now those glowing 
 
 signs 
 Sacred and regal ? Is the Cross forsaken ? 
 Forgotten is the Crown ? Your forms are wan 
 And withered spirits. Tell your tidings dire. 
 But sorrow hath no plenitude of phrase. 
 Of ready tongue no flow. In silent anguish 
 Their stifling hearts before my throne they bowed 
 And grasped my robe. Faith sighed and Fealty 
 
 sobbed. 
 Like groan of dying storm their broken speech 
 Faltered. " Not hypocrites, not renegades, 
 
MAGROS. 65 
 
 But faitliful still. Woe ! woe ! tinuttered woe ! " 
 
 Thus spoke tliey, in my robe their visages 
 
 Stricken and lorn concealing. " Cheer ye up," 
 
 I answered, " noble youths : where Honour is 
 
 All is not lost. That gone. Life is a world 
 
 Indeed that hath no sun." Whereat Faith rose, 
 
 Slowly, but more composed, and grasped my hand ; 
 
 But his once radiant brother on his knees 
 
 Still rested in his woeful paroxy. 
 
 Nor raised that face that once the earth illumed 
 
 Fresh as the dew, and bright as morning star. 
 
 " Thy voice is wisdom, Magi-os," said the child 5 
 
 " But all is lost, save Honour. Know ye, then, 
 
 As faithfiil watchers at our haughty post, 
 
 Earth and its ordered fortunes, thy behest 
 
 And counsel deep obeying, we remained, 
 
 Behold ! that earth was troubled ! Sounds unknown. 
 
 Now known, affrighted all ; clamour rmcouth. 
 
 And stunning outcry. Nations rose and stretched 
 
66 MAGROS. 
 
 Their lazy bodies in tlie rushing air, 
 As if the passage of the noisy breeze 
 Had stirred some ancient life-drops in the pools 
 The calm of centuries had clotted. Euniour 
 Tripped up the heels of doting Memory, 
 With all her legends, and with busy voice 
 Told of some coming fate. The Past became 
 The nausea of the Present. Omens dire 
 The heart of man struck cold, and made all gaze 
 Upon each other's face with silent speech. 
 Waiting who first should tell the thought all feared. 
 Steeples were blasted by descending fire ; 
 Ancestral trees, that seemed the types of Time, 
 Were stricken by strong winds, and in an hour 
 The growth of ages shivered ; from their base 
 Fell regal statues ; fountains changed to blood. 
 And in the night lights strange and quivering 
 
 scudded 
 Over the trembling sky. 
 
MAGEOS. 
 
 XLvr. 
 
 ' " Heraldic portents 
 Of advent awful ! For behold now rose 
 A Form so vast, so terrible, so strange, 
 That even eyes, to thrones angelic used, 
 Dropped their pale orbs. A thousand arms it had, 
 Or seemed to have ; a thousand tongues, the same. 
 Its voice a chorus, and its shape a crowd ! 
 Nor when from out the icy pinnacles 
 The savage Caspian crowning, Elburz peak, 
 Sublime and snowy, great Caucasian king. 
 Or unknown deserts, breast illimitable 
 Spreading, Tartarian tracts, or blander wilds 
 Of Araby the blest, some orient horde. 
 Like dazzling pard from out its secret den. 
 Issues to raven on the fertile land. 
 Their host imniunbered, by some haughty chief, 
 Sultaun or Scheik, or Atabek, or Khan, 
 Led with destroying skill : not even then. 
 
63 MAGEOS. 
 
 Ravage more dire, than now proclaims the course 
 Of this unheard-of scourge ycleped Change. 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 * '' From off the brow of kings it clutches crowns, 
 
 And snaps the crosier of denouncing priests, 
 
 And tramples on tribunals : hallowed tomes, 
 
 Collected reason of a thousand ages, 
 
 Hurls to the flames, and calls aloud .on man 
 
 To act without example. Edict dread ! 
 
 The great machine of life it seems to stop : 
 
 No certain laws control, thoughts certain none 
 
 Impel the being whose long-travelled course 
 
 The cynosm-e Experience guided sure. 
 
 The pallid student flings away the book 
 
 That once was truth, in silent wonder waiting 
 
 The future oracles : the artist quits 
 
 The art that quitteth him, for useless now 
 
 The skill is voted : baffled traders find 
 
 The wants their fathers fed for- many an age 
 
MAGROS. 69 
 
 Ai'e, strange to say, exhausted. Patient Labour 
 Eestless becomes, and sickens of the toil 
 No certain guerdon waits. Study and Skill, 
 Order's choice offspring, on the teeming breast 
 Begot of fruitful Prejudice, now shrivel, 
 Fed by no nursing streams. The world is blank. 
 The adamantine chain of generations — 
 Its links are broken ; nought the Present joins 
 Or with the Past or Future; men become 
 But as the summer flies that gild an hour. 
 Then die and rot. Unto the selfsame point 
 Change and Corruption drive their fatal course. 
 Barbarity their goal ; and when thy form 
 August upon the crumbling shape of Earth 
 First lighted, quick Destruction's subtle seed 
 Were not more germinant than at this hour 
 When bold Subversion on his crafty face 
 A gilded visor claps, and dubs himself 
 Reform ! 
 
MAGKOS. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 * " A solemn and a sacred thing 
 We deem a State : Ti]oon this holy ark 
 Not all must rest their hand ; but veil his head, 
 And from his sandals wipe profaning dust, 
 Must the approaching votary : with awe 
 And pious caution let him scan if Time 
 Hath sullied aught its brightness : as we gaze 
 Upon a father's wound, or dread decay, 
 With hope as much as fear ; and dare to think 
 That form beneficent shall yet survive 
 And flourish. But indeed their aged sire 
 The children of their country now would hack 
 Piecemeal, in cauldron's magic bubble thrust 
 The severed members, in the creed insane 
 That poisonous weed and spell of muttered power 
 May nature renovate. This let us learn : 
 In forms of rule how little virtue lies, 
 But in the mind and manners of those ruled 
 
MAGROS. 71 
 
 Subsists the fate of nations. The same charge 
 Tliat from his plongh the heroic Roman called, 
 Saviour of freemen, when young Julius rose, 
 Dictated Freedom's death. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 ' " The monster Change 
 Meanwhile sweeps on his course, and we go forth 
 That course to combat. Ah ! forgive these tears. 
 Words faltering, pallid cheeks. Nay, grieve not so, 
 My brother ; thy fond hand still I enclasp, 
 Still soothes fraternal care, tho' shame is ours ; ' 
 For vain our effort, and our fate a stain 
 Upon Heaven's scutcheon. In his baffling grasp 
 Our forms the monster seized. The bitter tale, 
 Oh ! let me make it brief. Upon the sign 
 ^ly hallowed brow that stamps, it spat, and washed 
 With burning slaver from my front the cross. 
 A poisonous flame on Fealty's crown it breathed, 
 And straight that bright and flashing diadem 
 
 F 
 
72 MAGROS. 
 
 All black and grim became, as if tlie cirque 
 Binding dim Pluto's brow. Our lifeless frames 
 Then on the earth it dashed, and its dread course 
 Resistless urged." 
 
 L. 
 
 ' The holy innocent 
 Parleys no more : his mournful task is done ; 
 And with it seems his life ; for lifeless there 
 Methought he lay ; his brother by his side : 
 Closed their fond eyes, and their fraternal arms 
 Clasped round each other's neck. Upon my throne 
 Their senseless shapes I raised. Short time I ween 
 For sorrow, and for sweet solicitude 
 111 season now. My beryl helm I seize, 
 Thrusting its plume upon my swelling brow. 
 Give me my ruby shield, and that dread spear 
 That erst I waved upon the mountain top. 
 When nations rose at its creating sweep : 
 Not to create its office now, but slay. 
 
MAGROS. 73 
 
 I looked around mo at these glorious seats, 
 Waiting their praise, when victor I returned 
 O'er monstrous Change ; then like a bird of chase 
 With keen and glowing eye its quarry marking, 
 I darted, and of mortal soil the clods 
 Sluggard, soon touched. 
 
 LI, 
 
 ' Nor long, nor curious quest 
 The monster dreaded ; lighted by the flame 
 Of cities burning, and by savage yells 
 Securely guided, soon the expected foe 
 My vision meets, uprooting holy fanes 
 And the embattled heights of ancient thrones 
 Sapping with subtle arts. No time for speech, 
 Nor seek I that which nought to me of joy, 
 Profit, or truth can yield ; my trusty lance 
 High in the air I poise, about to pierce : 
 Wlien, marvel of all marvels, o'er my foe 
 A silver radiance gathers — gathering, glows. 
 
 F 2 
 
74 MAGROS. 
 
 No monster there, no tliousancl arms I view ; 
 
 No thousand tongues, harsh as the Boreal blast 
 
 Mine ear insult ; but archangelic form 
 
 And voice of heavenly music. Lyridon, 
 
 My rival and my peer, before me stands. 
 
 '' 111 met," I cried, but dropped my Aveapon's power, 
 
 That ne'er on starry forms may raise its strength : 
 
 "111 met, and could not Hell send forth some power 
 
 WhercAvith to combat ! Is it thou, in truth 
 
 Celestial born, that thus infernal deeds 
 
 Achiev'st in safety ? It were braver, brother. 
 
 To do an angeFs work that thou might'st meet 
 
 A deviFs spite. Thy course, methinks, is clear; 
 
 An angel, devils must ajDplaud thy deed ; 
 
 And we thy peers are hindered from the fray. 
 
 Where blood celestial heavenly spears may j)ierce ? " 
 
 " Thy taunts all own, great Magros, and thy force 
 
 Of words sarcastic," Lyridon rej)lied ; 
 
 " But not by taimts or jflouts, by jeer or jest, 
 
 Shall man be hindered from the work divine 
 
MAGROS. 75 
 
 My counsel ever urges. Equal Spirits 
 
 Are we ; our power equal : not our cause, 
 
 For mine shall triumph. And methinks I mark 
 
 Upon thy careful brow a gloomy cloud, 
 
 Great brother ! What ! Has Faith his unction lost ? 
 
 Or Fealty proved flilse ? Thy many spells 
 
 Perchance enchant no more." 
 
 * '' Thy brain is gay," 
 Quick I replied. " Destruction's fumy wreaths 
 Impel thy fancy to unwonted life ; 
 But not for gibes or taunts this fitting time, 
 Or rival jeers. Gloomy, perchance, I am : 
 I grieve for Man ; not for my cause I fear. 
 The cause of Truth. But when indeed I muse 
 O'er all the barbarising strife, the woe. 
 Tears, agony, and carking care, the gore 
 Fast flowing, ruthless villany, the kin 
 Slaughtered, and ravished hearth, dungeon and rack 
 Restless with varied torture, treason's game, 
 Hope bright and ever baffled, than the flame 
 
76 MAGROS. 
 
 And the hot faggots of fanatic zeal 
 
 More terrible, and heady martyrdom 
 
 Sealing the faith which yet is but a lie, 
 
 The cloud deceptive, that a myriad dupes 
 
 Rush to embrace, and deem the airy phantom 
 
 A bright divinity ; to tyrants turned 
 
 Benignant monarchs, even from very fear, 
 
 And the wide stage for knaves to play their part, 
 
 The leaders of the people, with their voavs, 
 
 Breathed with an oath, and registered above 
 
 In heaven's great book as damning perjuries ; 
 
 When with prophetic pang I see await 
 
 All misery man has proved, and woe undreamed, 
 
 The combat of our creeds ; I would some God 
 
 Would by a word the course of ages leap, 
 
 And stamp at once the truth that all must own." 
 
 Lll. 
 
 Ceased the great voice of Macros; ceasing, yet 
 It seemed to sound : so deep that mighty breath, 
 
MAGROS. 
 
 Its solemn tones when hushed make silence pain. 
 
 And in all ears the immortal echo rests, 
 
 Divinely musical ! As oft we feel, 
 
 In Alpine regions wandering, where the pine 
 
 Shaggy and savage, from its rigid bed 
 
 Of snow eternal springs, if chance to gaze 
 
 Upon some mighty cataract, the fall 
 
 Of some broad river from a mountain's crest. 
 
 Wandering all day, within our awestruck ear 
 
 Echoes the roar sublime ; though as the eve 
 
 Draws on and calls the peasant to his hearth. 
 
 Sounds softer, softer sights, our trembling sense 
 
 Eefresh and renovate : the hum of bees. 
 
 And low of kine returning, and the voice 
 
 Of festive youth, or chime of sacred bell ! 
 
Book II. 
 LYEIDOK 
 
CONTEXTS OF THE SECOND BOOK, 
 
 Procru 
 
 Lyridoii rises and addresses Demogorgon 
 
 The original state of man 
 
 Th2 fountains of Sujierstition and Tyranny . 
 
 The great sources of hu77ian Misery 
 
 Asserts the antiquity of the Fcdcred 'principle; and de 
 scribes the PAN-Io^•IOx a7id the Federal rejn'.blics of 
 Asia Minor ...... 
 
 Bise of Solon : Athens described 
 
 The Achcsan league : extinction of Greciein freedom 
 
 Lyridon visits Borne ...... 
 
 Corruption of Borne by Asia .... 
 
 Lyridon quits earth in despair in the reign of Nero 
 The musings ef Lyridon in Heaven 
 The Bepublics of Italy and Switzerland 
 
 JECTIOX 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3-4 
 
 5 
 
 6-7 
 
 8 
 9 
 10 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 U 
 15 
 
82 CO^'TENTS OF TEE SECOND BOOK. 
 
 SECTION 
 
 Knowledge /5 Po^\-ER 16 — 17 
 
 Lyridon returns to Earth with the invcjition of Frintlng 13 
 
 Lyridon meets a beautiful maiden on the banks of the 
 
 Bhine. Birth and jJCirentage of Opi'sio's . . 19 — 20 
 
 Her education : first tutors ...... 21 
 
 Opinion projihcsies 22-23 
 
 Opinion repairs with Lyridon to the Low Countries. Be- 
 
 wlt against Spain. Bcvolution of Holland . .2-1-25 
 
 Opinion summoned to England ..... 26 
 
 Bevolution of England 27 
 
 The Bestoration. Opinion falls into a trance, and is 
 
 carried by Lyridon into America . . , .28-29 
 
 Address to America: The solitary rctred if Opinion 
 
 described 30 cl 
 
 Musings of Lyridon. Assumes the form of Washington 
 and rouses Opinion from her trance. Bevolution of 
 America 32—34 
 
 Tiiumph and consequences of the Fcdercd Principle . 35 
 
 Lyridon returns with Opinion to Europe : Bevolution of 
 
 France 36-37 
 
 Fined appeal to Bemogorgon 38 
 
 The D.crce 39 
 
83 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 LYEIDON. 
 
 I. 
 
 Amid the passions of a struggling world, 
 On me descends the sjoirit of great song. 
 A holy office mine, and noble aim : 
 To teach to monarch s and to multitudes 
 Their duties and their rights ; the end to teach 
 Of their existence ; and serene and just, 
 From out their mightiest annals to create 
 A mightier moral : this my theme sublime ! 
 
 II. 
 
 As break of daAvn men cheering watch, when thro' 
 The night they long have journeyed, to some shrine 
 
84 LYRIDON. 
 
 Pilgrims devote, or orient caravan 
 Cliarged for some costly mart, thus Lyridox 
 Each sight attracts, when on the blazing orb 
 Gazing nndazzled, sound those thrilling tones 
 That promise hope to man. 
 
 III. 
 
 * Euler unseen ! 
 Strange to the music of these starry spheres 
 Perchance this voice may sound, yet novel not 
 Its tones, tho' rare, for since the primal birth 
 My sighs have blended with man's hope. For Avho 
 Could gaze upon the earth, nor wish to make 
 Its habitants as fair ? Nor mourn to mark 
 Within this smiling land, thy crowning skill 
 Alone be sad. 
 
 IV. 
 
 ' Not such thine aim, when first 
 A cedar in the wilderness he rose 
 
LYRIDON. 85 
 
 Supreme ; amid the vigorous strong, and fair 
 Amid the beautiful : his eyes like stars, 
 A cloudless heaven his front ; and in his bliss 
 ]\rajestic. Then an amaranthine garden, 
 Where melody and perfume winged their way, 
 The dim-predestined Earth ; each trilling gale 
 Breaking with musky odours, each deep scent 
 Harmonious to the ravished soul. Dim bowers 
 And lakes translucent, ever- blooming meads 
 Swept by the sunshine, o'er whose fragrant breast 
 Flit shadows of soft birds, and graceful forms 
 Of many beauteous things, now dreams. This scene 
 Amid, a mountain rose, than loftiest heights 
 Blue-mantled, snowy- capped, that bound the vale 
 More lofty still. A chace one side might seem, 
 Where golden bugles call, and cry of hounds 
 Eager and panting. Flushed with painted birds 
 Tall trees arose amid the rustling woods 
 That nnderspread, and from whose moving shade 
 Sprung tawny antlers. Here and there a crag 
 
; LYRIDON. 
 
 Jutting, the semblance of a fortress bore, 
 
 Stern, grey, and grim. Pavilioned heights here 
 
 rise 
 Snowy and brave ; halberds, bright plumps of spears. 
 And flaunty gonfalons. High over all, 
 Of this biforked hill the immediate height 
 Crowning, a fountain burst ; a thousand feet 
 The sprayey sky within the pillar sprmgs, 
 Uprushing, column huge, nor sunset's dies 
 More gorgeous than the variegated garb 
 Its power robing. From its purple form 
 Flashing with gold and crimson, silver streams 
 Descend, and flow the mountain's side along 
 Until they meet, and form a coiu-se pellucid 
 Sparkling and bright. But o'er the adverse peak 
 Broods a black cloud, within that world serene 
 The only blot. Beneath its nursing shade 
 Bubbles a burning spring — sulphureous fount ; 
 From out its dreadful tide blue tongues of flame 
 Upglancing. From its dark, basaltic worn)), 
 
LYRIDON. 87 
 
 As from its midnight den some serpent vast, 
 Forth 2:)0urs its volumed course, and winds its way 
 The adverse mount along. A dismal land ! 
 Caverns and gloomy grots, and shaggy trees 
 Pyramidal and dark, by raven haunted. 
 Vulture, or owl ; and here and there arose 
 A spire grotesque or hooded cupola, 
 Gleam of some crescent, or a solemn cross ; 
 And crouched upon the tombstones many a form 
 Of gaunt anatomy that seemed to move, 
 Or satyrs leering in a sepulchre. 
 Tho' ever and anon some fairer shade 
 That should be woman, or majestic port 
 Of what seemed heroes, flitted o'er the scene 
 And vanished as you gazed. These wilds among, 
 And wilder habitants, the river flowed. 
 Until, the margin of the mount encircling, 
 It met its brighter brother : thence united 
 The confluent streams are one, and guide their cour^-.e 
 Where a most gorgeous basin meets their tide, 
 G 
 
88 LYRIDON. 
 
 And meeting, ne'er o'erflows. Of adamant 
 That mighty reservoir ; its scope secure 
 Might screen a navy. Know, the sparkling tide 
 Was Tyranny, and Superstition's stream 
 The darker wave. 
 
 VI. 
 
 ' And from their poisoned fomitains. 
 Around whose base the spell-bound multitude 
 Have wildly quaffed, with draughts infernal slaking 
 Celestial thirst, flows forth the misery 
 That makes men pale ; for ever at their hearts 
 Gnawing, resistless, Avith corroding fang : 
 All selfish thrones, and altars red with gore ; 
 Kings without heart, and pontiffs without faith ; 
 And rigid judgment-seats that only serve 
 As anterooms to dungeons ; and the lust 
 Of martial murder ; wealth's unhallowed power ; 
 And falsest custom clouding with a grace 
 Hoary imposture ; and the cunning creed 
 
LYRIDON. 89 
 
 That bids the many labour for the few, 
 
 Makmg existence venal ; for the wretch 
 
 To endless toil ordained, in his vexed soul 
 
 Barters his being for the craven chance 
 
 Of sharing in the spoil he loathes. Still lures 
 
 The cogent plea successful crime may urge 
 
 For further shame ; still lures and still enshives. 
 
 VII. 
 
 ' Body and Spieit are the mighty pinions 
 
 On which man floats, and trusting to their force 
 
 Soars thro' a cloudless life. Woe to the hand 
 
 These glorious wings that clip, whate'er their creed 
 
 Or form of domination ; whether one 
 
 With jewelled broAV, a solitary slave 
 
 lleposing in his golden palaces, 
 
 Or steeled leo-ions leadin<2: to the land 
 
 Gained by a nation's blood ; or galling rule 
 
 Of oligarchic scorn that will not spare 
 
 Even a patriot to a perilled state 
 
90 LTRIDON. 
 
 But from their ermined order ; crafty heads 
 Smiling on scholars when their curious lore 
 May cloud a nation's rights ; and fostering arts 
 To blind a -wilder ed crowd. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 * I said my voice 
 Was old, tho' rarely heard, yet on that day 
 When in Mycale's fane deputed chiefs 
 Vowed to the God their federal gratitude 
 It somided. O'er the waters of the isles 
 Led by a king, who as he touched the shore 
 His useless sceptre in the liberal weaves 
 Flung with triumphant scorn. The Carian flocks 
 Fl}^ from the rising turrets that thy meads 
 Invade, Meander ! See, Cayster's swans. 
 Arching with beauteous jiride their snowy necks, 
 Glide thro' its budding gardens. From the grave 
 Of Troy immortal to the enamoured shrine 
 Of rosy Cnidus ; land of silver streams 
 
LTBIDON. 91 
 
 And pastures green, with columned cities bright 
 In azure skies, of equal man the joy 
 Attests a social multitude. Of laws 
 Genial the joyous offspring ! O'er the plain 
 Mark their quick chariots in the rival course ! 
 See here the discus hurled, and there the grasp 
 Of panting wrestlers ! While the crowded cirque 
 Speak with their eyes, and with their hands incite, 
 Cheering and dropping garlands ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 ' In the night 
 Gazing on glowing orbs, by heavenly ray 
 His course pursues the anxious mariner ; 
 And while pursuing, lo ! an earthly star, 
 Some Pharos crowning with its steady beam, 
 Blends with the radiant host, and calls a vow 
 Of offering from the watchful steersman's lip, 
 Prophetic of the port. So in the night 
 Of ages, when the ray of lore divine 
 
9-2 LYRIDON. 
 
 Breaks but the gloom, risetli some lofty sage 
 The depth of darkness with his sheeny wit 
 Piercing, and shedding lustre on our course 
 Obscure and dubious, beacon of his race ! 
 Thus Solon rose, my pupil. Pregnant mind 
 In lore, that man alone can sway, deep read 
 The knowledge of his heart. He first proclaimed 
 Labour was Property, and Virtue, "Worth, 
 Ennobling man, although no Tyrian garb 
 His swelling soul might robe. Gentle and mild, 
 He felt for human frailties, himself 
 Stainless as marble fanes of his bright race 
 The glorious dwelling crowning. What dead line 
 Of mightiest kings' forgotten dynasty, 
 IVIonarchs of millions, born to ^\'atch their glance, 
 Could match that fair and freeborn monument ? 
 A city like the dream of youthful bard 
 Pej)Osing in the shade of summer trees, 
 And pressing to his eyes his magic hand 
 
LTRIDOX. 93 
 
 To call up visions of a fairer world. 
 
 Blue ocean, bowery plain, and azure sky, 
 
 And marbled walls and columned citadel 
 
 Glittering with ivoried statues, tlieatre 
 
 Choral, where voice poetic with the air 
 
 Delicate blended, to his secret soul 
 
 Nature's envoy. O ! gardens of delight, 
 
 Green glades, and fragrant groves, and mossy verge 
 
 Of sparkling fountain or serener stream, 
 
 To genial youth conversing sages teaching 
 
 Precepts ennobling ! To be wise and free, 
 
 licfined and virtuous, this their theme sublime. 
 
 Or for the high and passionate hour prepare, 
 
 When from the Bema's all-subduing throne 
 
 A voice may sway the world. Equality ! 
 
 Thou art indeed a God. Thy sacred fire 
 
 Burns now in later temples, not to fall 
 
 Like thine old shrines ; yet who can e'er forget 
 
 Thy broken altar on xItiiena's hill ! 
 
94 LTRIDON. 
 
 ' And tho' no more thy truth-inspiring faith 
 Kindle that mount iHustrious, lingered long 
 My presence in the land that seemed for thee 
 Cradle and tomb : in Theban's virtuous tent 
 Musing ; or breathing in that vow sublime, 
 That shook the tyrant's rising throne, and swore 
 By those that died on famous Marathon, 
 The slayers of the satraps, Freedom yet 
 Should breathe in Grecian skies. Yet, ere I shed 
 O'er those fair crags and olive-croA\Tied plains 
 A parting tear, in Philop(EMOn's hand 
 I guide a patriot's blade, and to my robe 
 Aratus clung. 
 
 XI. 
 
 * On the Italian wind 
 Caught, like a rising storm, my lonely ear 
 The voice of Freedom. Rests a city still, 
 
LYRIDON. ! 
 
 Her very ruins with a breathless awe 
 Filling the pilgrim : still her statues summon 
 To deathless deeds ; man's laggard blood still stirs 
 Iler name eternal. Since the wolf her mother, 
 Stern nurse of sterner children, from her dug 
 Immortal poured her stream, Eome's strong career 
 Was mine ; the blow bold Brutus struck, her fate. 
 Oh for an hour of that victorious spring 
 When, seated on my Capitolian throne, 
 Brethren in freeborn fame, to equal sway 
 I called the nations ! Conquerors left their car 
 The sacred plough to guide. Heroic prime 
 When Fabius counselled and Atilius died, 
 And Cato's old grey hairs more reverence caught 
 Than royal brows ; and when, serene as Truth, 
 The SciPios mingled in the market-place. 
 
 XII. 
 
 ' But gorgeous Asia, on her golden throne 
 The Cleopatra of man's destiny ; 
 
96 LYRIDON. 
 
 Brilliant and dusky as a summer night 
 That with its warm and wanton breath the heart 
 Softening to fancies softer still, may woo, 
 Smiled on these free-born warriors with a glance 
 iMore fatal than her scimitar, and called 
 Them pale with passion to her side. Behold ! 
 On her wild couch of mad voluptuousness 
 To never- cloying charms his eager soul 
 Pouring, and gazing with a spell-bound glance 
 On eyes entrancing, smiling as they sap 
 A nation's marrow, in his Median robe 
 The god-like citizen ! Mid the dance of girls, 
 Eunuchs' soft wail, on glittering walls they hang 
 His armour useless ; for a nerveless race 
 Strange monument. His skyey mountain-top 
 The eagle quits, and in a rosy bower 
 His eyry builds. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 ' Is there no hope for nations ? 
 Their spring-tide must it ever bear a crown 
 
LYRIDON. 9: 
 
 (3i' barren seaweed to the callous cliif ! 
 
 Upon the regal Palatine I stood, 
 
 The scalding tear of solitary shame 
 
 O'er their fate pouring. In the heart of man 
 
 Is there a drop inherent, as a pest 
 
 Tainting his life ? Is Virtue but a shade ? 
 
 And Freedom but the iris of a storm ? 
 
 O ! Man, that should be happy, and thou Earth 
 
 ISIaternal, from whose heart should ne'er be weaned 
 
 The child, why have they seized thy offspring fond 
 
 To suckle them on blood, fraternal eyes 
 
 Filling with mutual hate ? I weep for thee ; 
 
 Tears and not hopes my only offering noAV. 
 
 Thus on the proud, imperial Palatine 
 
 A spirit sorrowed o'er the fate of man, 
 
 While Nero revelled in the halls below. 
 
 Then stretching in the air my dusky wings. 
 
 Gazing above, I left his bloody realm 
 
 That was the world. 
 
98 LYRIDON. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 'A thousand years around 
 Thy throne I wandered, my imploring eye 
 A withering secret telling, yet that brow, 
 >Stern as primgeval mountains, would not yield 
 Hope to thy silent suppliant. Purpose thine, 
 And oft to us unknown, is ours to work. 
 Great emanations of thy will. But when 
 Our birth thy mighty spirit breathed, ordained 
 In our own musing should our conduct find 
 Its various aim : in course before decreed 
 Free agents. Mystery dark, beyond the ken 
 Of human sight. 
 
 XV. 
 
 ' Man struggled yet. The spell 
 Tradition weaves, a desolate nation's heart 
 Will soothe ; the memory of heroic deeds 
 Will stifle agony. And men arose 
 
LTRIDON. 99 
 
 Nobles -when noble deeds alone might make 
 
 Recalling. But to me forlorn what hope 
 
 In sea-born Venice and her Cyclades 
 
 When Eome had fallen ? When in Phidian Hhrines 
 
 jMonks mimibled orisons, in Arno's vale 
 
 What joy ? Or leagued tribes of Switzer bold ? 
 
 When on the glorious coast, resplendent once 
 
 With federal genius brilliant as its sky, 
 
 The turban ruled I 
 
 XVT. 
 
 ' Is there no hope for nations ? 
 Man to be wise must ever be alone — 
 Is that the doom ? A solitary sage, 
 Wandering in silence on a starry plain, 
 Is Knowledge ? In the market-place, the haunt 
 Of restless multitudes, shall he not blend 
 With all man's duteous life ? Smile in the hall 
 And solace in the hut? A power, since brows 
 With diadems encirqued to sages bow, 
 
100 LTEIDON. 
 
 Whose lore creative of enveloped life 
 
 Secrets unfolds, and deftly amplifies 
 
 Their joys. Woe to the sage who will not cross 
 
 A tyrant's hall ! for him a sterner conch 
 
 Some dungeon yields. Woe to the voice forlorn 
 
 That in the wilderness they call the world 
 
 The people's cause invokes ! Haply some strength 
 
 Knowledge may own, or of its mystic force 
 
 The strong were not so jealous. Yes ! a powe.- 
 
 Keener than orient blade, than arrow flight 
 
 More winged, than sevenfold shield, brass-bossed, or 
 
 knob 
 Of argentry, more strong ! Of man enlightened 
 The moral arms. A river in its might 
 With treasure-laden waters, blessing man 
 And visiting the nations : this the form 
 Of Knowledge, not a fount serenely bright, 
 Eeclining on whose marge the traveller dips 
 A classic vase. 
 
XVII. 
 
 ' Then there were hope for nations, 
 Nor -with his woes would man his Maker shame, 
 But share his god-like attributes. In vain 
 These musings ! In a palmy land of light 
 Incarnate, hath not Deity itself 
 Eternal wisdom whispered : life of truth 
 For falsehood tortured precedent ; the prop 
 Of vast profaneness balancing on high 
 Imposture's airy dome ? Then vain the grove 
 Of high Philosophy ! Green Academe 
 No longer echoes to a melody 
 Sweeter than all her nightingales : no more 
 The Porch's pride : the sacred lip in vain 
 The hellebore has touched. Amid life's stoi-m, 
 Truth is a quivering flash, that often blasts 
 The being it enlightens : Power and Faith, 
 The clouds and winds that cloak the sun of light, 
 Hurry the scudding elements along. 
 
^2 LYRIDOX. 
 
 Fearful of pause, lest from tlie blue serene 
 A beam dis^Del their sway. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 ' 'T is found ! 't is found ! 
 Thro' the blue regions of the exulting air 
 Once more on earth I lighted. Wondrous art, 
 The voice of man that multiplies at will ! 
 As on some Alpine morn a hunter finds 
 Chorus of ^-ales, and starts with wild delight 
 At his own voice creative. Wondrous art. 
 That maketh wisdom counsel in all roofs, 
 And binds the sages solitary brow 
 With an imperial halo ! Sword and sceptre. 
 Cedar and gold, or tinged with watered charm, 
 Yield to the ruffled pinion of a bird 
 Their falcons may have fed on. Found the art 
 That changed t]ie nature of a race. Between 
 Present and Past, divides the fate of man. 
 Chaotic offspring of an earthquake's throes, 
 
LYRIDON. 103 
 
 Abyss, Tinfathomed, vast. From each high brow 
 
 Man gazes on his brother with a fond 
 
 But fearful admiration : one with hope 
 
 Radiant and hght of heart ; the antique brood 
 
 More sad, yet noble with their baffled fate ; 
 
 Their mind, their heart, their life, no more the same ; 
 
 And like alone in form. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 ' Heights castellate. 
 Quaint towns, fair farms, and morn-illumined sails. 
 Mid carolling of birds, while thro' the vale 
 Of vineyards flows the river. As I gazed. 
 Than the dawn fresher, singing like the birds. 
 Came by a maiden. " Who art thou, this morn 
 Golden, amid the meads of Rhine ? " Slight blush. 
 From pastime task uplooking, coronal 
 Of heart's ease twining, she with flute-like voice : 
 " Of lovers too long parted, I the child ; 
 My name OriNiON : saintly mother mine 
 
 H 
 
104 LYRIDON. 
 
 Long known to few, yet by those few adored, 
 From my majestic sire by wicked arts 
 Long parted, but in vain ; for in this land 
 By hand of holy man united were 
 Physical Steength and Moral : of their love 
 I the true pledge ; my infant hours around 
 Knowledge and Truth the nursing ministers. 
 And never-dying Hope, who by their side 
 From death-like trance awaking, now arose 
 With crimson flush." 
 
 XX. 
 
 ' " Long honoured and long known 
 Thy parents, in their cause long labouring I 
 To blend their fates. Ah ! could'st thou dream the 
 
 woe 
 Withering, their loves have cost, those fawn-like 
 
 eyes, 
 Glancing around, unconscious of their light. 
 
LYRIDON. 105 
 
 Would pour a current swifter than the stream 
 That rushes at our feet ! " 
 
 XXI. 
 
 ' My charge this child. 
 Two spirits from her crowding votaries 
 To lead her in the path, long-tracked, I chose : 
 The first was one whom docile youth adores 
 When on the reverend knee with raptui-e leans 
 Marvelling childhood. Tender, strong of faith, 
 Ardent in sanguine constancy, himself 
 Unwearied, never wearying, trembhng wing 
 Of youthful flight sustaining by the pitch 
 Of his high-soaring fancy, lo ! the monk 
 Of famous Wittenburg. But when her shape 
 A longer shadow in the sunshine found, 
 A mighty volume in her ready hand 
 Another placed ; and soon on page profound 
 Her fair eyes fixed, within her learned bower 
 Opinion sat. Lo ! as she reads the storm 
 
106 LYRIDON. 
 
 Gathers in terror o'er her brow, her veins 
 
 Flash azure lightning. Wild, she turns and meets 
 
 The searching glance of that dread eye who reads 
 
 The secrets of Omnipotence. Sublime 
 
 As his own home-born mountains, as their heights 
 
 Inscrutable, and icy as their wave, 
 
 The prophet of Geneva stands, the man 
 
 T\nio crushes pontiffs with a pontiff's hate. 
 
 Watching his wondrous spell, 
 
 XXII. 
 
 ' Her long locks bursting 
 From out their fillet that her swelling veins 
 No more restrains ; wild as a Msenad, voice 
 Weirdlike, distended nostril, glittering glance : 
 " A judgment hath gone forth ; the kingly orb. 
 Sceptre and throne, are as the idle shells 
 On silent shores that none regard. In vain 
 Ye muster all your hosts, ye crowned forms, 
 That in the vacant air me seem to threat. 
 
LTRIDON. 107 
 
 And to their lips imperial fingers press. 
 
 In spite of all your dungeons, sliall the world 
 
 Re-echo with my voice. Dark Pharaoh's doom 
 
 Shall cool your chariot wheels, and hallowed be 
 
 The regicidal steel that shall redeem 
 
 A nation's woe. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 ' " A judgment hath gone forth : 
 Of my great parents' fate the friend devote 
 For many an age, prepare for mighty deeds, 
 Hopes mightier. Fragrance of man's morn I feel. 
 And warmth of breaking beam. Slaughter and 
 
 strife, 
 Kings' broken faith and nations' broken hopes, 
 And the long struggle when deceitful power 
 Upon her threatened cliff the casual ebb 
 The sure subsiding of the wearing wave 
 Shall deem ; and Superstition from her spire 
 Mark the winds' lull, and with her credulous soul 
 
108 LYEIBOX. 
 
 Believe the stoim is past, that shall ere morn 
 
 Shiver her pinnacles. Before me all 
 
 As in a glass ! The heart of multitudes 
 
 Enough to wither, and to make all men, 
 
 Crowned and discrowned, deceivers and deceived, 
 
 The slave and his oppressor, bow their heads, 
 
 And die of sheer decrepitude of soul 
 
 To bear their coming burthens. But I feel 
 
 My immortality, and this emprise 
 
 "Will not relax until the sim shall rise 
 
 On men who bless his birth." 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 ' Ceasing, on me 
 Her gentle form she threw, her long bright locks 
 Shrouding the lustre of her neck, a sea 
 Of wavy gold, breathing in tone subdued 
 Her palpitating purpose. " It is ripe — 
 Now hasten to the toil." Whereat my arm 
 Romid her I clasped, upon my shoulder resting 
 
LYRIDON. 109 
 
 Her cheek and closed eyes ; and o'er the height 
 
 Soaring, where sullen Jura sternly views 
 
 His fairer rival of the snowy crest 
 
 Her twilight tribute greet, and o'er the plains 
 
 Of spreading France, vineyards and winding streams, 
 
 Red orchards, golden fields, the Low-Lands reached, 
 
 Where haughty limit to the haughtier wave 
 
 Man dares to plant. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 ' The tamers of the Waters ! 
 Who by his wanton mane wild Ocean seized, 
 And in his foaming mouth a bridle thrust. 
 Fit champions of our cause ! Their ancient towns 
 Exulting meet us ; on the plains her pride 
 Deemed altar of her vengeance darker doom 
 Dark Spain confronts than pallid sanctuaries, 
 Shrieking the curse a future world may blight. 
 Can level at her foes. No more appal 
 Faggot and lying rack ; fell Alva's rule 
 
no LTRIDON. 
 
 And Haerlam's ghastly fate. Heroic day ! 
 When Nassau vows of faith and freedom pledged 
 In Utrecht's leaguered walls. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 ' Upon the shore 
 Musing I stood, as musing oft we stand 
 After great deeds, and marvel at the power 
 That now seems slack, and yet a little while 
 Performed miracles. Exhaustion's dream 
 And feeble reverie ! And by my side 
 The maiden, on the solemn sea, and sofl 
 Succession of its waves, her glance ; when lo ! 
 By no wind summoned, rose a cloud ; its shade 
 A shape gave forth : the form that with her lance 
 Cecropia's votive earth divinely struck. 
 Calling the olive from its fruitful breast, 
 Less awful and less fair ! Her sovereign brow 
 A golden helm protects, a golden spear 
 Her arm, and resting on a golden shield 
 
LYRIDON. Ill 
 
 Her hand sinistral. Flowed her Tyrian robe 
 
 Blazoned with waves of gold : " Angelic chief, 
 
 And thou, fair daughter of all human hopes, 
 
 The ruler of the waves, I welcome ye. 
 
 A land awaits your coming with a thirst 
 
 As after savage chase for shady spring 
 
 The hart may pant, or from the breast withdrawn 
 
 The infant yearn ; a land of mighty deeds. 
 
 There, pure and haughty as the cliffs that gird 
 
 His island home, is Man ; a fitting shrine 
 
 For Truth and Freedom. Then why listless here ? 
 
 These waves shall waft ye to a mightier scene 
 
 Than any yet the buskined pomp revealed 
 
 Of antique theatre: judgment supreme 
 
 On those who place themselves above the seat 
 
 Where Justice sits ; and old Tyrannicides 
 
 But petty brawls shall deem their famous deeds 
 
 Wlien placed by your achievement." Ceased the 
 
 voice. 
 And vanished, ceasing, the imperial glance. 
 
1 1 2 LTEIDOX. 
 
 The resting cloud re -opens, from its breast 
 
 A gallant ship emerging ; fair its sails 
 
 And swelling with the new-born breeze, its pennons 
 
 In the sun streaming ; Avhile its airy shrouds 
 
 Blend with the azure cope, like that tall scale 
 
 The patriarcli witnessed in his mystic dream 
 
 Angels descending. On the warlike deck 
 
 We bound, and bounding thus, the breeze becomes 
 
 A gale ; the bright and gently flowing waters 
 
 Swell into storm, and o'er the distracted sky 
 
 Dark scudding clouds. Swift flies the barque, its 
 
 ribs 
 Groaning and creaking with its j)erilous yards. 
 No hurrying land now cheers, but thro' the tide 
 Raging, we plough our way and fling the foam 
 From off our conquering keel ; yet ere the night 
 On the wild scene descends, as 't were a shroud 
 On one who dies with struggles, lulls the wind, 
 And thro' the murky air a single beam 
 Shoots its bright aim. Then o'er the horizon dark 
 
LYRIDON. 113 
 
 Uprising like a curtain spread the clouds, 
 And show the land ; a coast of glittering cliiF, 
 Heroic Albion ! 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 '■ Glory to the soil 
 That struck the oppressor down, not as a steed 
 Jaded flings off its burthen, but with aim 
 Noble as human rights. Majestic hour, 
 When in ancestral woods where Hampden mused 
 Opinion found a home, his pensive brow 
 Watching ; nor that imbending soul omit 
 Who prison prouder than a palace made, 
 The scathing voice of Eliot. In thy shrine 
 High priests were these, sublime Equality ! 
 What tho' too swift a spring of human hopes 
 These ardent sprites led on ; yet still the burst 
 Proved that a sun could beam ; of brighter skies 
 A genial promise yielding. 
 
114 LTEIDON. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 'Not to thee, 
 Child of my care ! For bitter is the bale 
 To youth of baffled hope ; for youth despairs 
 "Where age remembers, and in memory's spell 
 Finds solace. Dreary woe ! when priest erased 
 And muttered rites, fanatics' maniac cry 
 Bows man's bewildered ear ; the right divine 
 And lineal sceptre shivered but to thrust 
 In some bold grasp a bloody brand. But when 
 Their heartless monarchs with a sickening shout 
 The brainless crowd called back ; as to its vomit 
 Vile dog returns, and Eestoration's spell 
 Juggled a moonstruck land ; a deatlihke trance 
 Was fair Opinion's doom, 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 ' And as I gazed 
 Upon that sacred shape, on which all hope 
 
LYRIDON. 115 
 
 Human was staked ; as parents fond may watch 
 A fading child when on the future corpse 
 Descends a sudden sleep, uncertain whether 
 Repose or death ; lo ! in the sky a bird 
 Of radiant wing, over the unknown sea 
 Tracking its course, within its beak a branch 
 Olive, of fragrant bloom. Its grateful burthen 
 Then gently dropping, on Opinion's breast 
 It fell ; and as her silent heart it touched 
 On her cold cheek a flush ; a rosy gleam 
 As when the sun seems set, a sudden flash 
 Oft struggles with the twilight. Omen fair ! 
 Bearing Opinion on my faithful breast, 
 The bird I followed with expanding wings, 
 And left the worthless shore. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 ' Ye winds and waters, 
 Of fate supreme all potent ministers. 
 Ye have borne forward conquerors on their course, 
 
116 LYEIDON. 
 
 Their haughty standards fanning, soon to wave 
 In lands remote ; and continents unknown 
 Have by your influence to the prescient eye 
 Of sages risen from their briny womb ; 
 And many a hero when his country's altars 
 Have wildly fallen, to your fortunes cast 
 His gods and children, seeking holier shrines, 
 Hearths happier. Yet a freight more precious never 
 Since first upon the growing waves supreme 
 Floated the Ark with all of human hope 
 Divinely charged, than when Opinion, flying 
 Over the broad Atlantic, found a home, 
 America, in thee I 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 * Silent that world 
 When on its hopeful visage first I gazed 
 As on a child that shall our daring hopes 
 In season ripe fulfil. A spot there was. 
 It seemed the cradle of some mighty deed ; 
 
LYRIDON. 117 
 
 Tall mountains rose, with shining trees o'erspread, 
 
 And cleft with falling rivers, with a sound 
 
 Solemn, the solemn circus of the woods 
 
 Filling and flinging freshness. Virgin growth, 
 
 Its consecrated bark no axe had grazed. 
 
 But on the unsullied turf for many an age. 
 
 Spoil of the squirrel and the fearless bird, 
 
 Its fruit had fallen. In the centre rose. 
 
 With many a flower bedecked, a natural mound 
 
 Verdant and soft. Upon this fragrant couch 
 
 My charge with pious care I j)laced, her eyes 
 
 Still closed, unmoved her form. Then many flowers 
 
 Plucking, I dropped them on her silent heart. 
 
 And left her in her sacred solitude. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 ' Throughout that wondrous land alone I roamed, 
 And watched its rising race. ' Tis here, methought. 
 That I must triumph ; in this nervous brood, 
 Struggling with Nature, shall I fmd the souls 
 
118 LYEIDON. 
 
 0"svning no rule but liers. No wily priest 
 
 Shall froni his mystic groves with words enchain 
 
 These quellers of the forest ; no bold king 
 
 The sacred rights of Labour here usurp. 
 
 Man feels his stern equality when want 
 
 Is the intense instructor. Yet a while 
 
 A fruitful harvest ; and my prescient sense 
 
 Of Freedom's birth the agonising throes 
 
 With throbbing heart soon marked. The olden world 
 
 Marks with a jealous glance thy proud display, 
 
 Emancipated man ! A blood-red flag 
 
 Its servile navies hoist, and soon the sod, 
 
 That gore had ne'er polluted, feels the tramp 
 
 Of hireling legions. Victor or subdued, 
 
 Wliat fate awaits us ? Slaves ? Or shall he sheathe 
 
 Within his country's heart the jmtriot sword. 
 
 Some callous chieftain, to his fatal grasp 
 
 Too long in trust ? Some second Cromwell dash 
 
 The cu]o of freedom from a nation's lip ? 
 
 O ! Lyridon, of all thy hopes has come 
 
LYRIDON. 119 
 
 The agony ! Not man be trusted now, 
 All future trembling in the scale. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 ' Straightway, 
 Of stainless Washington the form serene 
 I took, and in the secret woods once more, 
 Where yet entranced a hundred years reposed 
 My precious charge, I stood ; then on her front 
 Pressing my lips, I whisper in her ear 
 Spell hushed but potent. With a wild desire 
 Gazing around she rose ; " I come ! " she cried, 
 *' And panting for the struggle." Holiest hour 
 Of joy exalting ! Tyrants of the East, 
 Where now your legions ? Proud armadas where, 
 And threats contemptuous ? To a briny grave 
 We beat their pallid plumes. Each stalwart arm 
 That erst the oak encountered, for a field 
 Statelier his rural warfare quits awhile, 
 Cleaving the oppressor with a patriot axe ; 
 I 
 
120 LTRIDOX. 
 
 And he avIio once the fisher's peaceful toil 
 
 Industrious urged, or produce of his coasts 
 
 To neighbouring ports bore welcome, warrior now 
 
 Upon the billow guides his armed prow, 
 
 Where hostile navies yield a nobler spoil, 
 
 And claim a bolder venture. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 ' He who watches 
 The dying of the stonu will surely mark 
 Within the turbid sky the mighty clouds 
 In shattered splendour sailing, like huge ships 
 After some fight that crowns an empire's fate 
 Drifting by conquered shores ; while mid their 
 
 wreck 
 The cannon of the tempest sullen boom, 
 The thunder's fading peals ; now loud, now deeji, 
 NoAV near, now far aAvay, until some bolt 
 That seems to crack the sky tells that the strife 
 Is over. Then, the scene distracted clearing. 
 
LYRIDON. 121 
 
 A gentle breeze ; while thro' a veil of rain, 
 Like Triumph smiling thro' a shower of tears, 
 Forth shines the conquering Sun, on field and 
 
 flower 
 His genial radiance shedding. Voice of birds 
 And lowing of glad kine that beam salute. 
 And soon each rural sound delightftil tells 
 Back to a freshened earth the rustic world 
 Return to grateful labour. I recall 
 Of the last gun the all-despairing moan 
 That told that land was free; that soon to earth. 
 Like some high prophet with resistless voice, 
 Deeds marvellous, shall Freedom teach. The storm 
 Terrific past, the Sun of moral light 
 Upon a mighty brotherhood of men 
 Shedding its glorious blaze. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 ' Behold man now 
 Lord of himself ; the reign of Force, dark-minded 
 ■ I 2 
 
122 LTRIDON. 
 
 And Fraud liis subtle sister, and their child, 
 Of loves incestuous craven birth, pale Fear 
 With crouching eyes, now past. O ! glorious Sun, 
 The beautiful thy beauty now illumes ; 
 Rising no more thy splendour but to beam 
 On starving scatterlings ; a tramping band. 
 The father and the mother and their woe, 
 And bloody-footed brats, and babe on back. 
 The happiest of the tribe, since Nature sends 
 A meal for that poor imp. With front erect 
 Ilis Maker man indeed resembles. Now 
 No more a rigid step-dame seems kind earth. 
 The treasures of her breast to grateful hearts 
 Eejoiced to pour. Famine, Disease, and Care 
 This equal land have left : the rich man's curse 
 And harsh command awake no echoes. Gold 
 No more the only test of worth, but Labour 
 Hath too its honour ; from the busy hive 
 Banished the drones: noble, and priest, and king. 
 Gorging the produce of a servile race, 
 
LYRIDON. 123 
 
 Servile and suffering ; fainting as they feed 
 
 The pampered few. Of ever-pleasant life 
 
 The means, and not the end, harsh Toil is owned. 
 
 None tremble where none frown ; and none will 
 
 fawn 
 Where none can trample. Flattery's fatal brood 
 Withers where Power is Virtue, equal share 
 Of good to all proclaiming ; where bright Hope 
 And sweet Affection, and the smiles and tears 
 Of Sympathy, and Truth with his clear eye, 
 Hover like spirits o'er the life of man ; 
 And Justice in his chamber ever stands, 
 Swift- winged minister, to every woe 
 Bearing his balm. And in the dimmer distance 
 Of his great fate a glorious band, for these 
 Companions meet. There, Science with her crown 
 Starry, and harp of golden Poesy, 
 And radiant shapes the unshackled wit of man 
 Calls into life, his soul divine to prove. 
 And baffle Nature with immortal forms. 
 
1^4 LYRIDON. 
 
 There too are sages with ensealed tomes 
 Time shall alone unclose. And there is seen 
 Brightest in that bright host, no more a slave, 
 A form that should be Woman. Frank and pure 
 From Custom's taint, behold her, now indeed 
 Life's light and prime intelligence : no more 
 The words of wisdom to those lips denied. 
 Formed to make wisdom beautiful ; no more 
 Shall stifle its emotions that soft breast. 
 Annulled the cowardly edict that proclaims 
 Woman alone of all created things 
 Shall neither think nor feel. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 ' Now oft as he 
 Who in his youth some maid denied hath loved, 
 On his first idol, as his years advance. 
 Doth muse and ponder ; thus my brooding thoughts 
 To thee and thy grey fortunes now return. 
 Old Europe ! Is thy shame indeed decreed? 
 
LYRIDON. 125 
 
 And reckless misery ? Is it tliou alone, 
 
 Grim mother of stout nations, that must mouthe 
 
 The bitter bit for ever ? Thou wert wont 
 
 To show some spirit in thy juicy youth. 
 
 I speak not of the dreams of ancient story, 
 
 Though those indeed were fair. The race is dead 
 
 That spawned heroic nations ; yet hath risen 
 
 In later times some solitary soul, 
 
 As in dim nights a single star may teach 
 
 There is a glorious heaven. O ! Germany, 
 
 Thine was Arminius : can no forest cave 
 
 Send forth his mate the doting crowns to strike 
 
 That nod o'er thy oppression ? Still resounds 
 
 The lyre of Milton. "With a pang I turn 
 
 From recreant England. Can I turn to thee, 
 
 Italia ? From her teeming soil, arise 
 
 RiENZi, and the forms obscene expel 
 
 That den within her palaces I Behold ! 
 
 Even as I mused, there came a gallant band 
 
 Of gay and daring youths, with laui'els crowned, 
 
126 LTRIDON. 
 
 Waving their blood-stained swords, and singing 
 
 songs 
 Of triumph ; victors in the mighty flight 
 Where I was conqueror. Distant home they seek, 
 Strangers, elate with triumph ; glad they pay 
 Their homage to Opinion, and myself 
 To their fair soil invite. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 ' Illustrious Gaul, 
 Thou hope of craven Europe. As the flower 
 Springs from the aloe's ancient breast of thorns. 
 Thus, mid the sorrows of a worn-out world, 
 Thou risest with thy beauty : full of hope, 
 And pride and freshness ! Many a poet's harp 
 The fairness of thy plains and fertile meads. 
 Where maidens dance beneath the trembling shade 
 Of trellised vines, have sung in strains as gay 
 And joyous as thy grape. Nor she the least, 
 The crowned victim, even for whom I weep, 
 
LYRIDON. 12: 
 
 Who, as her scudding bark thy sunny shore 
 Too swiftly left, within the briny waves 
 Dropped tears as salt, and hailed with soft adieus 
 The pleasant land of France. I hail thee now. 
 Not for the wanton richness of thy soil. 
 Nor beauty of thy daughters, nor thy sons' 
 Valour inborn and airy grace, though since 
 Athena fell, wits more refined have never 
 Moulded admiring worlds : but I do hail thee 
 That Reason in thy land hath found a dwelling, 
 And built a glorious temple. 
 
 XXXVI IT, 
 
 * Welcome then. 
 For such a stake, a struggle even as great ; 
 My rival stands before me. 'Tis the hour 
 Omnipotence hath fixed with solemn truth 
 Life's ill-apportioned lot to judge. From me 
 Far be all fear. Eternal ! thou hast heard 
 The glossing tongue that proves so rarely sweet 
 
28 LYRIDON. 
 
 The many labour and the few enjoy. 
 
 Imagination on her airy throne 
 
 Indeed hath ruled to-day ; no rival I 
 
 For Magkos in the cunning arts of speech. 
 
 To make the worser cause the best appear 
 
 All know his power ; and sooth indeed to say, 
 
 Great practice might he claim, if his indeed 
 
 The dexterous voice the Schoolmen's page inspired ; 
 
 In tlie prime fortunes of his boasted scheme 
 
 High arbiters of truth; all recognised. 
 
 If man be what I deem, what marvel then. 
 
 In spite of Magros, he might sometimes shine 
 
 In his unclouded lustre. One bright day 
 
 Makes not eternal summer. Much he boasts 
 
 His glorious ages, and his cycles choice 
 
 Of noble action, by some despot's name 
 
 Baptized, as if the fortunes of a race 
 
 Must ever on some single brain depend. 
 
 The Age of Hu^ian Nature I proclaim ; 
 
 And oh ! if man indeed be what I deem, 
 
LYIIIDON. 129 
 
 A being born for bliss ; if to his God 
 ]\Iore gracious worship he can never bear 
 T]ian by his own felicity to prove 
 His great Creator's goodness ; not in vain 
 1 stand before thy throne ; oh ! not in vain 
 Thus I appeal ; thus call on thee, Eternal ! 
 To seal by thine omnipotence this hour 
 His doom of Joy ! ' 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 The voice of Hope is hushed, 
 And o'er the radiant scene the shade of night, 
 If night indeed it be, that ne'er before 
 Swept with its solemn train in those bright halls, 
 Suddenly falls. A thousand blood-red stars 
 Spring from the orb, and gather like a crown 
 Over its power, then sounds again that Voice 
 The memory of which alone is dread. 
 
130 LYRIDON. 
 
 ^[je gccrn of gcmogorgan, 
 
 ' Dark is the sea of Fate, and fathomless 
 
 To human mariners ; but what seems Chance 
 
 To man or higher sprite, is Truth refined 
 
 To sheer Divinity. Spirits supreme, 
 
 In man alone the fate of man is placed. 
 
 Lo ! where the piny mountains proudly rise 
 
 From the blue bosom of the midland sea, 
 
 A standard waves ; and he who grasps its staff 
 
 Nor king, nor deputy of kings is he. 
 
 Yet greater than all kings. Unknown, indeed, 
 
 Like some immortal thing he walks the earth 
 
 That soon shall tremble at his tread. This man, 
 
 Spirits, then seek, for unto him are given 
 
 Fortunea unproved by human life before.' 
 
Book III. 
 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
CONTENTS OF BOOK III. 
 
 SECTIOX 
 
 Field of Montcnotte hy moonlight, after the battle . . 1-4 
 
 Napoleon pledges his faith to Lyridon .... 5 
 
 Soliloquy of Napoleon 6 — 7 
 
 Oynstcrnation in Turin and Milan .... 8 
 
 Magros stirs up the King of Sardinia . . . .9 — 10 
 
 Forced march of a French an7iy described . . . 11 13 
 
 Battle of Mondovi. The French repidsed by the Sar- 
 dinian cavalry ..... . 14 
 
 3Iurat revives the fight . . . . . . 15 
 
 Conquest of Pied mont . . . . . . .16 — 17 
 
 Battle of Areola 18—19 
 
 Agitation at Milan 20 
 
 Lyridon, assuming the form of young Visconti, rises in 
 
 the great square, and curses the Germans . , 21 
 
134 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION 
 
 Insurrection of the citizens of Milan, and expulsion of 
 
 the Austrians 22 
 
 The night before the entrance of Napoleon into the city . 23-24 
 
 Triumphant entrance of Napoleon into the cajntal of 
 
 Lomhardy 2o 
 
 Vlanting of the Tree of Liberty 26 
 
135 
 
 BOOK THE THIED. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 I. 
 
 'T IS night : on Montenotte's gory liill 
 Full many a sign that tells the bloody past 
 The summer moon reveals : standards and arms 
 Shattered and shivered like the ghastly fonns 
 Sharing their pride and doom. Alike o'erthrown 
 Steedsman and steed ; and joined in death as life. 
 That nostril which the morn with clarion snort 
 Saluted, flinging on the heady fight 
 Its foam superb, and in the daring air 
 Tossing its fiery crest, no more resounds ; 
 But on the cold and silent earth now lies. 
 
136 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Pallid and stiff. And many a goodly form 
 Who on tliat bounding back once felt a sword, 
 From out the pillage of a startled world, 
 A loftier seal might pluck, now bites the dust 
 He hardly deigned to tread : bloody and gi-im. 
 
 II. 
 
 No soimd disturbs, for silent as the slain 
 
 The victors in their tents repose. Calm scene 
 
 Yet ere the sun Avithin the midland wave 
 
 His glory veiled, fierce as his noonday beam 
 
 Poured forth the passions of two mighty hosts 
 
 Their martial clamour. Shrill cicala now 
 
 Where erst the trumpet thundered ; and the pines 
 
 Once blasted by the red artillery. 
 
 Upon their scorched and ragged scalps now plays 
 
 The shifting radiance of the southern fly. 
 
 But mid his desolation man is still ; 
 
 Save the deep challenge of the watchful guard 
 
THE COXQrEST OF ITALY. 13: 
 
 And snake-like rustle that too surely tells 
 The plunderer's fell intent. 
 
 III. 
 
 Deep sleeps the babe 
 Upon the undrawn curtain of whose brain 
 No phantoms flit ; and deep the huntsman's dream ; 
 The sailor, in his giddy hammock slung, 
 Rocked by the ocean, revels in repose 
 The couch of kings may envy ; and the star 
 From simset springing and the homeward wain 
 Bidding its course retrace, rewards the hind 
 With rest that Chanticleer alone shall rouse. 
 But sleeping babe, and huntsman with his dreams 
 Hind wearied, careless sailor, little reck 
 The soldier's slumbering trance, when like a ball 
 In battle spent, or steed whose course is run, 
 The sanguine struggle and the fierce suspense 
 All past, and wearied by the hot pursuit 
 k2 
 
138 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Whose scent is human blood, upon the sod 
 His sabre and himself he wildly flings. 
 
 IV. 
 
 But there is one within an armed host 
 O'er whose pavilion with her brooding plumes 
 Sleep rarely hovers ; on his watchful brow 
 No dreamy blossoms dropping : various Life 
 No lot anxiety more surely seals 
 Can yield, than his who leads the doubtful war. 
 And that triumphant flag, whose triple tint 
 Led on the conquerors of the Apennine, 
 Exulting on her broad and piny crest, 
 As on the golden plains that spread below 
 They gazed, the land of promise in their sight ; 
 And felt the freshness of the silver streams 
 That wound amid their richness : rapid Po, 
 A war and not a tribute to the wave 
 Pouring with pride ; Tanaro's breast of waters ; 
 And DoRiA that the freeborn Alps sent forth, 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 139 
 
 Their envoy to a king : that flag triumphant 
 Belongs to one, a hero and a youth, 
 The moving hght in whose pavilion tells, 
 The victory gained, the victor in his tent 
 No hour of rest to wearied nature spares : 
 Scorning the solace of his feebler race, 
 O'er future triumphs musing. 
 
 V. 
 
 Suddenly, 
 The curtains of the conquering tent withdrawn, 
 Eeveal the hero ; bathed in gorgeous light 
 The inner scene, of an immortal shape 
 Befitting shade, for there, on front sublime 
 A smile divinely playing, as becomes 
 The brow of gods, in joy serene, the troth 
 Of that predestined man, upon whose crest 
 Shall light the fortunes of a world, receives 
 Celestial Lyridon. On kneeling form. 
 That never knelt before, he pours his spirit. 
 
140 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Within the azure air his mighty wings 
 
 Waving, his course then shoots, as some wild light 
 
 The order breaking of the midnight sky. 
 
 The meteor of a moment. Hushed and grave, 
 
 Arms folded, brow profound, the chieftain views 
 
 The radiant shape, till in the distant air 
 
 A dusky shade ; the shade a vanished spot. 
 
 Then glancing round, that voice before whose tone 
 
 Shall soon grow pale the kingdoms of the earth 
 
 Broke on the night. 
 
 VI. 
 
 ' A bridegroom of three days, 
 From passion's wild embrace I have come forth 
 To plant my standard in the sunny land 
 My fathers loved : the dream hath come to pass ; 
 The shadowy fate whose brooding vision haunted 
 Within the lonely grot my lonelier hours. 
 When in my uncle's garden mid the shade. 
 Of summer trees reclined, the musing day 
 Hath often vanished, till the setting sun 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 141 
 
 Eoused me from dreams as crimson as his orb. 
 
 And then I felt a wretched boy, and cursed 
 
 My dreams of conquest; and the juggling brain, 
 
 With witching thoughts my life entrancing, then 
 
 Left me as one upon a baiTcn heath 
 
 When fairies fly. The dream hath come to pass. 
 
 Italia, I behold thee ! On thy beauty 
 
 As on a mistress oft denied I gaze. 
 
 When, waking in the night, within our arms 
 
 We find the long-loved fonu. Thus I embrace thee ; 
 
 Mountain, and plain, and lake of glittering light, 
 
 Fair cities, whose traditionary towers 
 
 Fill me with emulous fancies, thus I greet ye ! 
 
 I hail your inspiration with a mind 
 
 That pants to mate your glory. Yes ! I feel 
 
 A Roman soul, and I will dare to make 
 
 A Roman fate. 
 
 VII. 
 
 "T is strange how very cahn, 
 Yet breathing with the mighty enterprise 
 
142 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 That gives a colour to my life, tlie deed 
 
 So long desired, my first of victories. 
 
 Flows the still current of that eager blood 
 
 That in old days, in Brienne's cloistered shade, 
 
 So oft hath fevered o'er victorious dreams 
 
 And started at the visionary trump 
 
 No ear but mine had caught. O ! Montenotte 
 
 Within the midnight sky thy piny peak 
 
 Eaises its ancient crest. The birth of Time 
 
 In thy chaotic crag perchance hath found 
 
 A hoary "witness ; yet although thy form 
 
 Eternal on the race of man hath frowned, 
 
 Of this dread day it is the throbbing deed 
 
 Shall make thy name a household argument 
 
 Familiar with their voices. For this day 
 
 Hast thou baptized one a conqueror 
 
 Whose course shall be the universal swell 
 
 Of the old waters, when divinely rising 
 
 The landmarks from the startled earth they swept. 
 
 And thy proud height an unseen rock became 
 
 Beneath their growing waves. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 14?. 
 
 Dread Deity, 
 A mystic votary, in whose dark shrine, 
 Worshipped my youth : Eternal Destiny, 
 I am thy child. Pregnant with novel birth 
 The world ; in deed and thonght ; changed all and 
 
 new ; 
 To point a tale time hath no moral now. 
 Experience hath no wisdom. Kings and nations 
 Gaze on each other with a blended glance 
 Of awe and doubt ; the crumbling oracles 
 Of old belief a faltering sound send forth 
 That echo will not honour ; mid the hush 
 Of the o'er-brooding elements I stand 
 Alone serene ; all prescient that the bolt 
 The storm sends forth, this red right hand shall 
 
 grasp.' 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In Milan's towers and Turin's courtly halls, 
 Pale councillors and panting couriers tell 
 
144 TEE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 The reign of Panic. "Who this wondrous youth, 
 Before whose glance the captains of the world, 
 Grey with the wisdom of a hundred fights, 
 Tremble, and baffled fly ? Ye shades of Tilly, 
 And mighty Walstein, granite-hearted Daun, 
 And Laudohn, darting like the forky flash. 
 As quick, as fatal : your imperial legions 
 Lords of the Danube, that all-famous river, 
 Whose shores are kingdoms, on whose warlike towns 
 Your twin-born Eagles float, are they divorced 
 From their old vahance ? Hath their southern captive 
 A fatal harlot proved, in whose warm anns 
 Their rigid nerves dissolve ? Austria, where now 
 That famous infantry, whose ordered tramp. 
 Like distant thunder, on the trembling ear 
 Of their opponents fell ? Bohemia's bands, 
 Is all their glory but a minstrel's tale ? 
 Has the Hungarian sabre lost its edge ? 
 The rifle of the Tyrol, is it false ? 
 Those clouds of cavalry Croatia sends, 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 145 
 
 Her tribute to tlie tempest of the war, 
 
 Ai'e those steeds hamstrung ? A^nd the lightning 
 
 flashes 
 Of those quick falchions, can they blast no more ? 
 
 IX. 
 
 Within that beauteous city of the realm 
 
 That from the mountain's base its title takes, 
 
 The capital ; where in the clear, blue sky, 
 
 Viso its glaciers rears, and throws a glance 
 
 Haughty on heights opposing, where aloft 
 
 Superga's columned dome : disquieted 
 
 The royal Amadeus, lone and sad. 
 
 His chamber oft with troubled step he treads ; 
 
 Upon the marble floor his anxious brow 
 
 Fixed with vague glance, and oft the couch regains 
 
 That to his fevered frame nor rest nor ease 
 
 Will yield ; his visage pale, though on his cheek. 
 
 Withered, a hectic quivers. Pride and Shame 
 
 Its parents. On the heroes of his house 
 
146 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 He looks around ; and many a bitter tear 
 
 Starts from his eye, as in the shadowy light 
 
 Of the young moon the royal warriors frown 
 
 Upon their fated progeny : recalling 
 
 The blood and craft by which their power was 
 
 raised ; 
 Council and field triumphant both ; and they 
 ' The Gaolers of the Alps,' a style more precious 
 Than Savoy's duchy or Sardinia's croAvn, 
 Or those romantic realms whose appanage 
 More fame than tribute to their treasury yield : 
 The rosy Cyprus and the sacred towers 
 Of far Jerusalem ! 
 
 X. 
 
 A cloud obscures 
 The streaming moonlight : through the spacious hall 
 A murmur runs, and o'er the palace roof 
 A single peal of thunder, than a storm 
 More terrible. A crimson flash illumes 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 147 
 
 The oriel. Eye aglmst, the monarch starts, 
 
 And mighty form perceives, in armour chad ; 
 
 For those gigantic rebels fit co-mate, 
 
 Who in old days the thunderbolt defied, 
 
 And shook the ivory throne. 'Art thou some monk,' 
 
 The awful voice exclaimed, * on whose bald brow 
 
 A kingly crown some spiteful chance has set, 
 
 That thus thou slumberest here, before a flag 
 
 Whose motto is the doom of all thy race 
 
 Thy legions flying ? Thine the blood of Savoy ? 
 
 Of that heroic house, whose subtle word 
 
 The eager victor in his midway course 
 
 So oft hath checked, indeed the son ? Arise ! 
 
 There cometh one whose boast superb binds kings 
 
 And fetters nobles : yet a little while, 
 
 Time for a courtly dance, or regal chase, 
 
 Amid the dewy vistas of thy parks 
 
 Thy golden bugle sounding, and this pile 
 
 May own another lord, if, sooth to say. 
 
 To hold their wassail in thy fathers' halls 
 
148 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 The People condescend. Yet there is time : 
 All is not lost while Magros wields this lance. 
 Counsel I bear from Milan's towers. Ere dawn 
 Break on that gardened lake whose terraced isles 
 And azure waters Borromeo's saint 
 Serenely guards, from out the city gates 
 The imperial host advance ; thine equal power 
 Join with these warriors, and thus joined, the foe 
 Twice ye outnumber. Crush him on the plains 
 He comes to rifle.' 
 
 From the silver moon 
 Vanished the cloud, vanished the martial form 
 On which its beam might rest, for nought is seen : 
 Nought seen, nought heard. But in the spacious 
 
 hall 
 Around, the ancient banners seem to stir ; 
 And seem to smile upon the breathing walls 
 The armed forms. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 149 
 
 XI. 
 
 But not in vain descended 
 With heavenly counsel Lypjdon, for ere 
 The sun had tipped with light the mountain tops 
 The conqueror's march commenced ; in truth a march 
 As wondrous as his war. Ye royal bands, 
 Hirelings of kings and emperors, vain your strife 
 With these bold sons of freedom, as the note 
 Of glory's trumpet on the distant wind 
 Catches their eager ear. On with the march ! 
 No pause but combat, and the victor field 
 Their only resting place ; the cause his own 
 Devoutly feels each warlike citizen. 
 For slaA^es be food and rest, their own great hearts 
 Alone sustain them ; and their aching eyes 
 Are weary only with the restless ken 
 The unseen foe that seeks. A warlike march 
 Warriors alone may form. No suttling crowd 
 Their noble course impedes with all the lures 
 That tempt to heartless strife. Each steed its forage, 
 
150 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 His scanty ration on his bayonet's point 
 
 Each soldier bears, and to his sword alone 
 
 Trusting, on hostile land adventurous flings 
 
 His reckless form. On with the ceaseless march ! 
 
 The startled warder on his warlike tower 
 
 Guards well the gates the foe disdains to view ; 
 
 Passing contemptuous ; though those mighty walls 
 
 Full many a summer host have held at bay 
 
 Of proud invaders, and the tide of war 
 
 Stopped like some mole that breaks the ocean's swell, 
 
 Its headlong wave back hurling ; of the land 
 
 Bulwark superb. But for these novel warriors. 
 
 Fort covered, totveriug citadel, are guides 
 
 Tracing the road of conquest ; urging on 
 
 Their course resistless, till the turrets rising 
 
 The regal city show, all meaner prey 
 
 Rejecting. This their aim : no fence of arms 
 
 Maiming some feeble member w^ith a scratch, 
 
 But in its very heart to stab the land. 
 
 And so end all. On with the ceaseless march ! 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 151 
 
 The billowy rusliing of the winding river 
 
 Is but a bath to renovate their strength 
 
 For these bold men, and slake their fevered frames ; 
 
 Flouncing and shouting in the troubled waters ; 
 
 Tossed in the air the glittering drops, or gay 
 
 Amid their travail, in a comrade's face 
 
 The sparkling shower. On with the ceaseless 
 
 march ! 
 A ferry to the footmen prompt affords 
 The fisher's bark, or merrily they twine 
 "With practised skill light baskets, that the girls 
 Crowned with fresh fruit ; almond and gourd and 
 
 grape, 
 Eich fig and radiant peach ; to market bear 
 Jocund with matin song ; these baskets light 
 Into a lighter bark the warriors mould. 
 Nor Cupid floating down his Indian stream 
 Borne by a lotus, owns more fragile craft 
 Than these bold foemen to the awful war. 
 
 L 
 
1/32 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 XII. 
 Set the red sun, the silver moon upsprang, 
 And morn again its rosy radiance shed 
 Upon the purple mountains ; o'er the plain 
 And gloomy woods the sunbeam steals, and glide 
 The dusky rivers into hght. Then rose 
 The song of birds from quivering trees ; first breath 
 Of waking world. Eight fair and fiill of hope. 
 Though crimson Eve is memory's gorgeous dower. 
 The golden Dawn ! And say, what fairer scene 
 Than thine, Italia, when on some blue hill. 
 Crested by sea-born pine and convent-crowned, 
 Or village sparkling with its tall thin tower 
 Mid orchards bowered, of Indian grain the fields. 
 With vines festooned and ploughed by milk-white 
 
 steers, 
 The morning sunshine falls ? 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The grateful beam 
 Lights up the invading plumes, and while they j)ray 
 
TEE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 153 
 
 The setting siin bring triumph, scouts arrive. 
 Sardinia's power, they tell, last eve had left 
 The regal walls ; to join the Austrian host 
 Their aim : now resting from their nightly march 
 Beneath Mondovi's walls. In grey capote, 
 A sight that ever cheers, his charger mounting, 
 * My children,' said that voice that like a trump 
 Their blood enkindled, and their glistening eyes 
 Already read his purpose, ' One brief hour. 
 Is all that freemen ask : these warriors rest 
 After their nightly march. You see their blood ; 
 A laggard stream, methinks, yet shall it flow 
 Swifter than all the streams they could not guard, 
 Turin is ours ; ay ! from his hoary throne 
 We hurl the despot. I have nought to say 
 But ye are Frenchmen — Victory to you 
 As natural as the sunlight. Ere day dies 
 We '11 do a deed, shall make all Paris shout 
 With our achievement ; not a man who fights 
 In our Italian armies but shall rank 
 l2 
 
154 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 With tlie prime heroes of the wondering world. 
 Sons of my heart, the great EepubHc deems 
 Each man her child.' 
 
 XIV. 
 
 A shout the heaven ascended 
 The wild birds rousing from their mountain lair, 
 And hovered o'er his head, with balanced plumes, 
 Two mighty eagles ; chorus from their lips 
 The omen called ' The great Eej^ublic live ! ' 
 This their dread cry, ' On to the heady charge ! 
 No rest but triumph ! ' At their eager words 
 His sword he waved, and, smiling, to the van 
 Galloped his steed superb, Avhose scornful crest 
 Knew well its rider. Quick the trumpets sound, 
 The banners wave ; two columns from the host 
 Send forth their pride. Massena one, the next 
 Serrurier heads, and from a gentle height 
 Upon Mondovi's plain the torrents pour. 
 Strongly intrenched, Sardinia's chief beats back 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 155 
 
 Serriirier's force ; whereat impetuous Lannes, 
 
 For names, that soon are soldier's music, like 
 
 Stars on the horizon's edge, begin to gleam, 
 
 Upon his bloody sword his feathered hat 
 
 All wildly waving, dashed aside the foe 
 
 And beat him back : meantime Massena, child 
 
 Of Fortune and of war, the hostile flank 
 
 Adroitly turns. Is lordly Turin lost ? 
 
 One effort more ! Sardinia's cavalry 
 
 Charge with thy famous ranks ! The bursting lake 
 
 That sweeps the mountain top and bears away 
 
 Whole towns in its fell swoop less awful. Fly 
 
 The Gallic horse ; Stengel, their leader slain ; 
 
 Losing a marshal's staff or dukedom fair 
 
 Those ancient towers may yield. The war is changed, 
 
 And Montenotte's conqueror with a glance 
 
 Anxious, but firm, his routed ranks surveys. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Now came there one upon an Arab steed 
 Smiling amid the fray, as if to him 
 
156 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Danger was bliss, his reckless sabre waving, 
 
 And mid the peril of the awful field 
 
 Proud of his charger's paces. ' Citizen ! ' 
 
 He gaily cried, ' the gladsome task be mine 
 
 To rally these sad truants.' Ere the nod 
 
 Confirmed the wish, like some bright paladin 
 
 Charging amid a host of Paynim slaves, 
 
 He dashed amid the victors. You have marked 
 
 A band of urchins on the briny beach 
 
 Pursue the wave receding with loud shouts 
 
 And glee triumphant : but anon returns 
 
 The crested fugitive with force renewed ; 
 
 How fly the urchins ! How the lordly clamour 
 
 To slavish cries and whimpering shrieks is changed ! 
 
 And thus before the self-appointed chief 
 
 The bold Sardinians fly, as bright he whirls 
 
 His flashing sabre, and his trampling steed 
 
 Guides like an armed ship, shouting around 
 
 With voice elate and laughing eye of glee, 
 
 ' Live the republic ! Death or victory ! 
 
 Charge on, charge bravely, charge ye with Murat ! ' 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 157 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Before liis reckless onset all men yield ; 
 A thousand arms his bright example nerves 
 That panic else had palsied. Yes, 't is won, 
 The doubtful day a single blade hath turned : 
 Not doubtful now ; within Sardinia's ranks 
 Dismay ineffable ; all fly, all yield, 
 Scatter their arms upon the bloody plain, 
 Their tattered colours flinging in the trench 
 Their slain hath filled. Their costly camp a prey 
 Falls to their campless victors. All is lost ; 
 Perfect the rout, and in ancestral halls, 
 Filled with ancestral trophies, waits his doom 
 A vanquished monarch. 'T is a bitter lot ; 
 Kings have their pangs ; a conquered capital 
 A royal heart might break. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 From out the gates 
 Whence poured the pride of war but yesterday, 
 
158 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 In plume cliivalric, now the victor seek 
 
 A diiFerent band ; of downcast citizens 
 
 With folded arms. ]\Iercy, their plaintive plea ; 
 
 To courtly halls their conqueror invite, 
 
 And of their fertile plains their produce rich 
 
 Bear to his troops ; to suffer or enjoy 
 
 Skilful alike. Light are your buoyant hearts, 
 
 Ye sons of France, alike in weal or woe, 
 
 Blithesome and gay, in peril or in pleasure 
 
 Alike serene. But not thy courtly halls, 
 
 Turin superb, thy costly galleries, 
 
 Ramparts of gardened grace, arcadian squares. 
 
 And streets of palaces, thy victor stern 
 
 Can tempt. Without the gates that are his own. 
 
 Still on his charger seated, terms of peace 
 
 Tie dictates : such as to the vanquished yield 
 
 The victor. To the foe long centuries baffled 
 
 Savoy at best a satrap. Oh ! the day 
 
 When from Superga's height of bold Eugene 
 
 The eagle eye the Gallic leaguer marked, 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 159 
 
 His fathers' desperate, city with their bands 
 
 Triumphant pressing ; then the mountain brow 
 
 Descending like the storm, the foe surj^rised 
 
 Swept from their trench, and beat them breathless back 
 
 To pale-eyed Paris. Ah ! those days are fled ; 
 
 ' The Gaolers of the Alps ' have lost their keys ! 
 
 Tortona's airy citadel, the fort 
 
 Of iron Ceva, and the virgin towers 
 
 Of CoNi, whose parthenic crest a flag 
 
 Hostile ne'er sullied ! Treaty merciless 
 
 The chief confirms ; then with that spell-bound smile. 
 
 As if his mistress glanced, each warrior's heart 
 
 Touching, upon his troops Napoleon turned. 
 
 ' PiEDMOXT is ours ; the great Republic thanks 
 
 Her sons ; but ere the breaking dawn shall gild 
 
 y ISO's twin peaks, to Milan be our march ! ' 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Eouse, Austria, from thy trance ! The old Beaulieu 
 Quakes in his tent. Rouse, Austria, from thy trance I 
 
160 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 One struggle yet for LombardYj one charge 
 To save the Iron CroAvn ! The glorious city, 
 With all its fragi-ant gardens, must it fall ? 
 And triply hundred churches, and its gates 
 Through which the Caesars passed for many an age 
 Triumphant ? Shame on thy imperial eagles ! 
 One struggle more for Lombardy ! 
 
 There is 
 An ancient city by a river's side, 
 Amid the mountains rising, where the Swiss 
 Still bow to Rome, the holy Valteline. 
 Thence flowing through the lake of palaces, 
 CoMO superb, that to its greater brother. 
 Is as the gem unto the precious stone 
 Less rude, yet not more lustrous, bends its course 
 Within the fertile Milanese ; its wave 
 A natural fortress, on its rugged bank 
 Old Gothic walls, to which a wooden bridge, 
 Crossing the rushing stream, securely leads — 
 The bridge of Arcola. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 161 
 
 Strange that a day 
 Should make a place memorial that for aye 
 Hath been unknown ! Dread Waterloo itself 
 Was but a cornfield till the struggling hosts, 
 Upon whose crests the fortunes of the world 
 Hovered supreme, their sanctifying gore 
 Poured on its golden grain ; and now we pause 
 Upon its wide expanse and silent scene, 
 With spirit hushed and earnest, o'er the fate 
 Of man profoundly pondering — but to feel 
 We know not what we are, and ne'er shall dream. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The bridge of Arcola ! Staked on this bridge 
 The fate of Milan. Here the Austrian host, 
 As in his lair the hunted lion greets 
 His headstrong foe, the invader waits. Across 
 The serried bridge their awful mouths distend 
 A park of guns, like monsters that the eye 
 Of poet only views, or he who mates 
 
162 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 The poet's art, veracious traveller ; 
 For surely not upon Walpurgis night 
 On the dim Brocken, or in spicy wood 
 Of green Ceylon more liideous forms. Appear 
 The French : the cannon roar, and shower death. 
 ' They leave us even bridges, Berthier ! ' cries 
 The young Napoleon. ' Point the invading guns, 
 That none the stepping-stone shall undermine 
 That leads to Milan. 'Tis warm work, my friend ; 
 But thus the world is won.' A rumoiu- runs 
 A ford, not far, is found, and at his word 
 A troojo of horsemen soon the waters breast, 
 Their leader leaving by the perilous bridge, 
 Watching the Austrian rank. Beneath the shade 
 Friendly of shattered piles, his grenadiers 
 In column now he forms : a chosen band, 
 All prescient of command, and future fate 
 Exalting. In the hostile line some change. 
 What moves ? The Germans falter. In their rear 
 The French have shown their crests. Ah ! fatal ford ! 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 163 
 
 ' The bridge of Arcole leads to Milan ! ' cries 
 The dauntless chief, and at these words advance 
 His columned host : they breast the fatal bridge ; 
 But vain they strive ; that dread artillery 
 Who can withstand ? The grape shot wildly falls 
 In awful showers, and from each armed house 
 Poui's thick the volleyed musketry : in vain 
 Bold Berthier heads their fastly thinning ranks, 
 And brave Massena waves his bloody brand. 
 The French recoil. And loud the Austrians cheer 
 In fearful triumj^h, * Yet once more, my sons ! ' 
 And at these words the triply tinted flag 
 He daring seized, and rushing on the bridge 
 The immortal standard planted. ' I, at least, 
 Die by my colours ! Death or victory ! ' 
 ' Oh, save the general ! ' every voice exclaims ; 
 '■ Live the Republic ! ' Who shall now oppose 
 That reckless onset ? Quick as one may fall, 
 His desperate post a daring arm supplies. 
 They charge, and at the bayonet's bloody point 
 
164 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Cany the guns ; within the rushing river 
 Hurl their astounded guards, or stab the breast 
 That dares oppose their whirlwmd. Won the bridge, 
 The bank is gained. On, on ! strike home, strike 
 
 quick ! 
 In Milan's halls full many a wanton hour 
 This moment dread shall pay. All -panic-struck 
 The sanguine Germans. But a moment since 
 Invincible they deemed their batteried post ; 
 A flight and not a combat now it seems. 
 None stop to struggle ; even their aged chief — 
 And many a laurel in time-honoured days 
 Beaulieu had crowned— strives not to rally now. 
 His rapid steed his desperate fortune bears, 
 And cursing as he flies the present age 
 That conquers without rules. 
 
 XX. 
 
 It is the hour 
 
 When lovers' hearts are soft, and softer still 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 165 
 
 Their voices ; on the Adrian wave guitars 
 And gondolas are busy now ; and where 
 The turbid Arno from their dark green womb 
 The mountains shoot, palace and park and place 
 Re-echo with the trembling mandolin. 
 No sluggard in this sport of melody 
 Thy wont to be, bright city of the plain, 
 Light-hearted IMilan ! But far different scene 
 Thy busy squares and populous arcades 
 Now offer to the moon that rising tips. 
 With silver light of thy transcendent fane, 
 The statued pinnacles. High in the air 
 The noble army of thy saints and martyrs 
 Sublimely rise. Guard well, ye saintly sprites, 
 Guard well the shining city of your care. 
 For there are murmurs in the market-place 
 Of battles fought and won ; and rumours rife 
 That one now cometh on the conquering wind, 
 The Lord of Vengeance ; in his awful hand 
 The sword triumphant and the terrible scales 
 
166 THE CO>-QUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 "With -wliicli the victor metes resistless doom 
 TTaving supreme. An agitated tlirong 
 Fills the great square, but silent in their fear 
 And deep suspense. TVith hushed and bated breath 
 They Avhisper mutual dread ; and mutual hope 
 Speaks from some flashing eyes. Is this the hour 
 Indeed of Freedom ? — hour long promised ? 
 By bards foreseen ? And from her fatal trance 
 Shall our Italia rise and burst the fetters 
 Her fair voluptuous form so long have bound ? 
 And many are the thoughts that none express, 
 And many are the hopes that all must feel ; 
 Though ever and anon as shrilly soimds 
 The ultra-montane triunpet, and the deep 
 And gloomy beat of the barbarian drum 
 Heralds their German masters ; to the pile 
 "Wliere the Imperial Viceroy holds his state 
 And pallid councils, many a rancorous glance 
 Speaks hope of vengeance. 'T is in hours like these 
 Heroic souls arc proved, and all men own 
 
TEE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 167 
 
 The magic of a leader. Never long 
 A chief is wanting. Lyridon descends 
 Amid the brooding multitude, but changed 
 From that immortal hour when first he waved 
 His radiant arm. The shape he now assumes 
 Of young ViscoNTi, in whose ancient veins 
 Flows blood that never yet had deigned to mingle 
 With other than thy daughters, dark-eyed land 
 His fathers ruled ! At least thy masters then, 
 Italians, were thy countrymen ! 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Aloft 
 Upon an ancient tomb he boldly springs. 
 And all eyes meet his glance. ' Must then for ever 
 The accursed boar within our vineyard riot ? ' 
 He loud exclaims ; ' Must we for ever sow, 
 Others to reap? And our Italia, then, 
 Is all her beauty but a harlot's dower, 
 Some stranger's brutal dalliance to tempt, 
 
 M 
 
168 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 And then be stricken by the very hand 
 
 That wantoned with her bosom ? all our doom 
 
 To be enjoyed and spurned ? Is this the city, 
 
 The bulwark of old Rome against the Goths ? 
 
 The ancient walls are these before whose breast 
 
 The Consuls slew the Cimbri ? Who are these 
 
 That meet with better fortune than their sires, 
 
 And revel in our gardens and our halls ? 
 
 Are their hearts stouter ? Stronger are their arms ? 
 
 Or are we changed indeed ? I feel not so : 
 
 At least you look like warriors. But the will 
 
 Alone is wanting. Eipe and fall, methinks, 
 
 The season now. Before the invaders' flag, 
 
 A legend bearing fatal to their race, 
 
 Our tyrants tremble. Let it not be said 
 
 To strangers, e'en though free, we freedom owed ; 
 
 But work your own salvation. I, at least. 
 
 No quarter seek, or yield. But here aloud 
 
 And in their legions' very teeth I pour 
 
 My curse, as strong and bitter as their rule ! 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 169 
 
 By all the memory of oui' fathers' glory ; 
 By all the passion of their sons' disgrace ; 
 By all the beauty of our native earth ; 
 By all the hideous forms that in our bowers 
 Have made their sacrilegious dens, a curse 
 Upon the Germans ! ' 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Quick a thousand shouts, 
 ' A curse upon the Germans ! ' Every heart 
 And every tongue responds. With maddened rage 
 They rise and wave their imprecating arms ; 
 And many a poniard glitters. Louder still 
 The execrating peal. ' To arms ! to arms ! 
 Italia wakes ! Tear down the bastard eagles ! 
 On to the Palace ! ' As they shout, a shower, 
 On crests prepared, falls thick in triune tint 
 Of freedom's badges. With this awful cry 
 The infuriate crowd rush on. A serried square 
 
170 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Around the imperial gates, in vain the guards 
 Their princes shield. A parley not a strife. 
 Eetreat their aim, secure tho' sad. And strange, 
 How still the clamour now ! Each ready arm 
 Prepared to strike, or in the gathering night 
 Grasping a desperate torch. With hollow sound 
 Unclose the palace gates ; the royal pair 
 With mournful mien advancing : shedding tears, 
 Illspared, they mount their exiled cars. But now, 
 All trembled at their glance. A moment since, 
 The fugitives were kings, gazing with pride 
 On halls ancestral. In their favoured seats 
 Shall strangers revel, and their ancient home 
 Shall stain. A bitter pang is his who quits 
 The roof his fathers raised. A lingering awe 
 Yet blending with their vengeance, the scant train 
 The people watch. At length the city gate 
 Closed on its recent masters. Then arose 
 A shout like thimder. ' Italy is feee ! ' 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 171 
 
 'Tis midnight; but tlie hour shall bring no rest 
 To agitated Milan. Through the streets 
 Swarm the excited people chanting hymns 
 Of freedom and of triumph. Chime of bells 
 And peal of glad artillery resound, 
 The free-born flag from every steeple floats 
 Mid tapestry and stufl* of various dye, 
 Decking each house, and every garden stripped 
 To twine to garlands. Roimd each holy shrine. 
 Blazing with tapers, kneel, in silent prayer, 
 Entranced votaries, mute before the face 
 Of sweet Madonna and her Child divine. 
 Hark ! to the tinkling of the mystic bell, 
 Calling the colour from each laughing eye ; 
 All prostrate on the humble earth, with awe 
 Gazing, while like some archangelic host 
 Sweeps by of chanting priests the pious pomj), 
 Their cross and banners waviuo; in the air, 
 
172 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 Or relics holding to the blessed sight 
 
 Of Ecstasy devout ! Lo ! farther on 
 
 An arch of triumph rears its head superb, 
 
 Creation of a night. "While here are trained 
 
 Bright companies of youth, and maidens fair 
 
 With songs victorious, and with martial dance 
 
 The chief of France to hail. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Methinks the dawn 
 Is breaking o'er the Alps that gird the plain 
 Taking their title from the ancient town 
 Where once assembled prelates dared decide 
 What man can never fix, the Trentixe Alps. 
 The dawn is breaking, Ere an hour may pass 
 He may be here. Upon the doubtful city 
 A solemn pause now falls. Are they then free 
 But for a moment? free alone to feel 
 Of servitude renewed the double pang ? 
 A conqueror, or a saviour, who comes next ? 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 173 
 
 Is the old lion scared to yield his den 
 
 But to the wolf? Yet vain their musings now ; 
 
 The deed is done : and youth is full of hope, 
 
 Tho' feebler men will shake their snowy crowns, 
 
 And murmur of rash boyhood, and the lightness 
 
 Of ancient rule extol— paternal sway 
 
 Where man is ever treated as a child. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 He comes ! He comes ! The banners and the music 
 And the far-flashing of his armed train 
 Announce the heroic advent ! Like a wave 
 When on the adverse shore the wind may blow, 
 Swift to the northern gate the people rush. 
 He comes ! He comes ! A band of beauteous maidens 
 Waving light wreaths of laurel, strewing roses, 
 In mazy dance, his martial course precedes ; 
 A troop of choral youth then next approach ; 
 The conquerors, then, in warlike columns ranged. 
 Beneath the gates in ordered march they tramp, 
 
174 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 And with their ranged files the city fill. 
 He comes ! He comes ! Amid the crashing peal 
 Of bell and cannon, and the louder shout, 
 Upon his prancing steed Napoleon bursts 
 Upon their awe- struck vision. Pale his face ; 
 Command, not Triumph, on his steadfast brow : 
 Nor to their rapturous Avelcome does he yield 
 The smile of sympathy ; but holds his course 
 As one who knows his power, and feels his right 
 To be revered. Nor reins his steed superb 
 Until before the palace gate he halts ; 
 Then, in his stirrup rising, waves his hand, 
 Claiming without a word a breathless pause. 
 * Italians ! ' said the deep and thrilhng voice, 
 ' From this illustrious day have ceased to reign 
 Your foul oppressors. France protects the free ; 
 And ye are Freemen.' 
 
 XXVI, 
 
 * Italy is free ! ' 
 The people shout. '• Our Italy is free ! ' 
 
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 175 
 
 * Long live Napoleon ! Live our mighty friend ! 
 
 Saviour of Italy ! ' In the glorious air 
 
 A thousand garlands wave ; a thousand flags 
 
 Respond in triumph. But the conqueror yields 
 
 No further presence to the raptured crowd, 
 
 Seeking the chambers of their recent lords. 
 
 ' Our Italy is free, our glorious land 
 
 Her ravished heritage once more hath gained.' 
 
 Thus sings triumphant Milan : ' Shout aloud 
 
 Our dark-eyed daughters, and our vahant sons 
 
 Raise in our beauteous air your voices brave, 
 
 For Italy is free. The rod is broken. 
 
 The chains are burst, the oppressor overthrown ! ' 
 
 Thus, with victorious chorus, marching on 
 
 To where a pleasing shade the ramparts yield 
 
 What time the sun descends, and many a maiden 
 
 Gazes on twilight stars ; no play of love 
 
 Their purpose now, no soft voluptuous sport ; 
 
 But crowdhig where its lofty head on high 
 
 A lusty poplar raises, to its trunk 
 
176 THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 
 
 They fix tlie ready ropes ; with daring grasp, 
 And, singing as they toil, a band of youth 
 Up by their roots the mighty branches drag. 
 Their vigorous burthen to the palace gates 
 Bearing on laurelled car. Before those walls 
 With renovated life their spoil they plant ; 
 And then with deafening shouts, in giddy air 
 Tossing their caps, they dance around the tree 
 Of Lombard Liberty. 
 
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