Like the avalanche's snow On the Alpine vales below; Thus at length, outbreathed and worn, Charge of the Moslem multitude. In firmness they stood, and in masses they fell, Hand to hand, and foot to foot: Mingle there with the volleying thunder, If with them, or for their foes; If they must mourn, or may rejoice In that annihilating voice, 750 Which pierces the deep hills through and through With an echo dread and new: You might have heard it, on that day, O'er Salamis and Megara; (We have heard the hearers say,)" Even unto Piræus' bay. XXV. 760 From the point of encountering blades to the hilt, Sabres and swords with blood were gilt ; i. I have heard --[MS. G.] 2 1. [Compare The Deformed Transformed, Part I. sc. 2 ("Song of the Soldiers") "Our shout shall grow gladder, And death only be mute."] 2. [Compare Macbeth, act ii. sc. 2, line 55 "If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal.”] 770 But the rampart is won, and the spoil begun, That splash in the blood of the slippery street; Desperate groups, of twelve or ten, Make a pause, and turn again— With banded backs against the wall, Fiercely stand, or fighting fall. 780 There stood an old man 1-his hairs were white, But his veteran arm was full of might: So gallantly bore he the brunt of the fray, The dead before him, on that day, In a semicircle lay; Still he combated unwounded, Though retreating, unsurrounded. Many a scar of former fight Sons that were unborn, when dipped 1. ["There stood a man," etc.-GIFFORD.] 2. [" Lurked"-a bad word-say "was hid."-GIFFORD.] 3. ["Outnumbered his hairs," etc.-GIFFORD.] 4.["Sons that were unborn, when he dipped."-Gifford.] 790 His weapon first in Moslem gore, Of all he might have been the sire1 His wrath made many a childless foe; Buried he lay, where thousands before 800 810 For thousands of years were inhumed on the shore; Where they lie, and how they fell? Not a stone on their turf, nor a bone in their graves; XXVI. Hark to the Allah shout! 5 a band Of the Mussulman bravest and best is at hand; 820 1. [Bravo!-this is better than King Priam's fifty sons.GIFFORD.] 2. In the naval battle at the mouth of the Dardanelles, between the Venetians and Turks. 3. [There can be no such thing; but the whole of this is poor, and spun out.-GIFFORD. The solecism, if such it be, was repeated in Marino Faliero, act iii. sc. 1, line 38.] 4. [Compare Childe Harold, Canto II. stanza xxix. lines 5-8 (Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 125)— "Dark Sappho ! could not Verse immortal save? ... If life eternal may await the lyre."] 5. ["Hark to the Alla Hu!" etc.-GIFFORD.] Their leader's nervous arm is bare, Swifter to smite, and never to spare- But none on a steel more ruddily gilt; Alp is but known by the white arm bare; 830 Look through the thick of the fight, 'tis there! Scorns to yield a groan in dying; Though faint beneath the mutual wound, 840 XXVII. Still the old man stood erect, I. [Gifford has erased lines 839-847.] 850 "Never, Renegado, never! Though the life of thy gift would last for ever." ↳ "Francesca -Oh, my promised bride!". Must she too perish by thy pride!" "She is safe."-"Where? where?"-" In Heaven; From whence thy traitor soul is driven Far from thee, and undefiled." Grimly then Minotti smiled, As he saw Alp staggering bow Before his words, as with a blow. "Oh God! when died she?"-" Yesternight— Nor weep I for her spirit's flight: None of my pure race shall be Slaves to Mahomet and thee Come on!"-That challenge is in vain- While Minotti's words were wreaking 860 Than his falchion's point had found, From within the neighbouring porch The sharp shot dashed Alp to the ground; That crashed through the brain of the infidel, i. Though the life of thy giving would last for ever. 870 [MS. G. Copy.] ii. Where's Francesca ?—my promised bride!—[MS. G. Copy.] |