ADVERTISEMENT.

« THE grand army of the Turks (in 1715), << under the prime vizier, to open to themselves << a way into the heart of the Morea, and to << form the siege of Napoli di Romania, the << most considerable place in all that country (1), << thought it best in the first place to attack « Corinth, upon which they made several « storms. The garrison being weakened, and «< the governor seeing it was impossible to hold <«< out against so mighty a force, thought fit to « beat a parley: but while they were treating « about the articles, one of the magazines in << the Turkish camp, wherein they had six hun«dred barrels of powder, blew up by acci<«<dent, whereby six or seven hundred men

(1) Napoli di Romania is not now the most considerable place in the Morea, but Tripolitza, where the Pacha resides, and maintains his government. Napol is near Argos. I visited all three in 1810-11; and in the course of journeying through the country from my first arrival in 1809, I crossed the Isthmus eight times in my way from Attica to the Morea, over the mountains, or in the other direction, when passing from the Gulf of Athens to that of Lepanto. Both the routes are picturesque and beautiful, though very different: that by sea has more sameness, but the voyage being always within sight of land, and often very near it, presents many attractive views of the islands Salamis, AEgina, Poro, etc., and the coast of the continent.

« were killed << that they would not grant any capitulation, « but stormed the place with so much fury, << that they took it, and put most of the garrison, << with Signior Minotti, the governor, to the « sword. The rest, with Antonio Bembo, pro<< veditor extraordinary, were made prisoners «of war.»--- History of the Turks, vol. iij, P. 151.

which so enraged the Infidels,

THE

SIEGE OF CORINTH.

I.

MANY a vanished year and age,
And tempest's breath, and battle's rage,
Have swept o'er Corinth; yet she stands
A fortress formed to Freedom's hands.
The whirlwind's wrath, the earthquake's shock,
Have left untouched her hoary rock,
The keystone of a land, which still,
Though fall'n, looks proudly on that hill,
The land-mark to the double tide

That purpling rolls on either side,
As if their waters chafed to meet,

Yet pause
and crouch beneath her feet.
But could the blood before her shed
Since first Timoleon's brother bled,
Or baffled Persia's despot fled,

Arise from out the earth which drank
The stream of slaughter as it sank,
That sanguine Ocean would o'erflow
Her isthmus idly spread below:
Or could the bones of all the slain,
Who perished there, be piled again,

That rival pyramid would rise

More mountain-like, through those clear skies, Than yon tower-capt Acropolis,

Which seems the very clouds to kiss.

II.

On duu Citharon's ridge appears

The gleam of twice ten thousand spears;
And downward to the Isthmian plain,
From shore to shore of either main,
The tent is pitched, the crescent shines
Along the Moslem's leaguering lines;
And the dusk Spahi's bands advance
Beneath each bearded pasha's glance;
And far and wide as eye can reach
The turbaned cohorts throng the beach ;
And there the Arab's camel kneels,
And there his steed the Tartar wheels;
The Turcoman hath left his herd ',
The sabre round his loins to gird;
And there the volleying thunders pour,
Till waves grow smoother to the roar.
The trench is dug, the cannon's breath
Wings the far hissing globe of death;
Fast whirl the fragments from the wall,
Which crumbles with the ponderous ball;
And from that wall the foe replies,
O'er dusty plain and smoky skies,
With fires that answer fast and well
The summons of the Infidel.

III.

But near and nearest to the wall
Of those who wish and work its fall,