What though his gaoler, duteous to the last, Scarce deem'd the coffin's lead could keep him fast,

Refusing one poor line along the lid,
To date the birth and death of all it hid;
That name shall hallow the ignoble shore,
A talisman to all save him who bore.
The fleets that sweep before the eastern
blast

Shall hear their sea-boys hail it from the mast;

When Victory's Gallic column shall but rise,

Like Pompey's pillar, in a desert's skies, 110 The rocky isle that holds or held his dust Shall crown the Atlantic like the hero's bust,

Ye Alps, which view'd him in his dawning flights

Hover, the victor of a hundred fights! Thou Rome, who saw'st thy Cæsar's deeds outdone!

Alas! why pass'd he too the Rubicon —
The Rubicon of man's awaken'd rights, 139
To herd with vulgar kings and parasites ?
Egypt! from whose all dateless tombs arose
Forgotten Pharaohs from their long repose,
And shook within their pyramids to hear
A new Cambyses thundering in their ear;
While the dark shades of forty ages stood
Like startled giants by Nile's famous flood;
Or from the pyramid's tall pinnacle
Beheld the desert peopled, as from hell,
With clashing hosts, who strew'd the bar-
ren sand

The half barbaric Moscow's minarets Gleam in the sun, but 't is a sun that sets! Moscow thou limit of his long career, 171 For which rude Charles had wept his frozen tear

To see in vain - he saw thee - how? with spire

And palace fuel to one common fire.
To this the soldier lent his kindling match,
To this the peasant gave his cottage thatch,
To this the merchant flung his hoarded store,
The prince his hall-and Moscow was no
more !

Sublimest of volcanoes! Etna's flame
Pales before thine, and quenchless Hecla 's
tame;

180

Whose icy wing flapp'd o'er the faltering foe,

Till fell a hero with each flake of snow; How did thy numbing beak and silent fang Pierce, till hosts perish'd with a single

pang!

190

In vain shall Seine look up along his banks For the gay thousands of his dashing ranks!