LXXII.

Childe Harold at a little distance stood

And view'd, but not displeased, the revelrie, Nor hated harmless mirth, however rude: In sooth, it was no vulgar sight to see Their barbarous, yet their not indecent, glee; And, as the flames along their faces gleam'd, Their gestures nimble, dark eyes flashing free, The long wild locks that to their girdles stream'd, While thus in concert they this lay half sang, half scream'd: (30)

1.

(31) TAMBOURGI! Tambourgi! * thy 'larum afar
Gives hope to the valiant, and promise of war;
All the sons of the mountains arise at the note,
Chimariot, Illyrian, and dark Suliote!

* Drummer.

2.

Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote,

In his snowy camese and his shaggy capote?

To the wolf and the vulture he leaves his wild flock, And descends to the plain like the stream from the rock.

3.

Shall the sons of Chimari, who never forgive

The fault of a friend, bid an enemy live?

Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forego?
What mark is so fair as the breast of a foe?

4.

Macedonia sends forth her invincible race;

For a time they abandon the cave and the chase:
But those scarfs of blood-red shall be redder, before
The sabre is sheathed and the battle is o'er.

5.

Then the pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves, And teach the pale Franks what it is to be slaves, Shall leave on the beach the long galley and oar, And track to his covert the captive on shore.

6.

I ask not the pleasures that riches supply,

My sabre shall win what the feeble must buy;
Shall win the young bride with her long flowing hair,
And
many a maid from her mother shall tear.

7.

I love the fair face of the maid in her youth,

Her caresses shall lull me, her music shall sooth;
Let her bring from the chamber her many-toned lyre,
And sing us a song on the fall of her sire.

8.

Remember the moment when Previsa fell, (32)
The shrieks of the conquer'd, the conquerors' yell;
The roofs that we fired, and the plunder we shared,
The wealthy we slaughter'd, the lovely we spared.

9.

I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear;

He neither must know who would serve the Vizier :

Since the days of our prophet the Crescent ne'er saw
A chief ever glorious like Ali Pashaw.

10.

Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped,

Let the yellow-hair'd* Giaours+ view his horse-tail with dread;

When his Delhis§ come dashing in blood o'er the banks, How few shall escape from the Muscovite ranks!

Yellow is the epithet given to the Russians. Horse-tails are the insignia of a Pacha. § Horsemen, answering to our forlorn hope.

+ Infidel.

11.

Selictar!* unsheath then our chief's scimitar :
Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of war.
Ye mountains, that see us descend to the shore,
Shall view us as victors, or view us no more!

LXXIII.

Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth! (33)
Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great!
Who now shall lead thy scatter'd children forth,
And long accustom❜d bondage uncreate?
Not such thy sons who whilome did await,
The hopeless warriors of a willing doom,
In bleak Thermopyla's sepulchral strait—
Oh! who that gallant spirit shall resume,

Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb?

Sword-bearer.