Coumourgi, he whose closing scene Adorn'd the triumph of Eugene, When on Carlowitz' bloody plain, The last and mightiest of the slain, He sank, regretting not to die, But cursed the Christian's victory Coumourgi, can his glory cease, That latest conqueror of Greece, Till Christian hands to Greece restore The freedom Venice gave of yore? A hundred years have roll'd away Since he refix'd the Moslem's sway, And now he led the Mussulman, And gave the guidance of the van To Alp, who well repaid the trust By cities levell'd with the dust;
And proved, by many a deed of death, How firm his heart in novel faith.
The walls grew weak; and fast and hot Against them pour'd the ceaseless shot, 160 With unabating fury sent From battery to battlement; And thunder-like the pealing din Rose from each heated culverin.
And here and there some crackling dome Was fired before the exploding bomb; And as the fabric sank beneath The shattering shell's volcanic breath, In red and wreathing columns flash'd The flame, as loud the ruin crash'd, Or into countless meteors driven, Its earth-stars melted into heaven; Whose clouds that day grew doubly dun, Impervious to the hidden sun,
With volumed smoke that slowly grew To one wide sky of sulphurous hue.
And tuned the softest serenade That e'er on Adria's waters play'd At midnight to Italian maid."
And many deem'd her heart was won; For sought by numbers, given to none, Had young Francesca's hand remain'd Still by the church's bonds unchain'd. And when the Adriatic bore Lanciotto to the Paynim shore, Her wonted smiles were seen to fail, And pensive wax'd the maid and pale; More constant at confessional, More rare at masque and festival; Or seen at such, with downcast eyes Which conquer'd hearts they ceased to prize. With listless look she seems to gaze; With humbler care her form arrays; Her voice less lively in the song; Her step, though light, less fleet among The pairs, on whom the Morning's glance Breaks, yet unsated with the dance.
Sent by the state to guard the land (Which, wrested from the Moslem's hand, While Sobieski tamed his pride
By Buda's wall and Danube's side, The chiefs of Venice wrung away From Patra to Euboea's bay), Minotti held in Corinth's towers The Doge's delegated powers, While yet the pitying eye of Peace Smiled o'er her long forgotten Greece. And ere that faithless truce was broke Which freed her from the unchristian yoke, With him his gentle daughter came; Nor there, since Menelaus' dame Forsook her lord and land, to prove What woes await on lawless love, Had fairer form adorn'd the shore Than she, the matchless stranger, bore.
O'er which the following brave may rise, Their stepping-stone the last who dies!
'Tis midnight: on the mountains brown The cold, round moon shines deeply down; Blue roll the waters, blue the sky Spreads like an ocean hung on high, Bespangled with those isles of light, So wildly, spiritually bright;- Who ever gazed upon them shining And turn'd to earth without repining, Nor wish'd for wings to flee away, And mix with their eternal ray? The waves on either shore lay there Calm, clear, and azure as the air; And scarce their foam the pebbles shook, But murmur'd meekly as the brook. The winds were pillow'd on the waves; The banners droop'd along their staves, And, as they fell around them furling, Above them shone the crescent curling. And that deep silence was unbroke, Save where the watch his signal spoke, Save where the steed neigh'd oft and shrill, And echo answer'd from the hill, And the wide hum of that wild host Rustled like leaves from coast to coast, As rose the Muezzin's voice in air In midnight call to wonted prayer: It rose, that chanted mournful strain, Like some lone spirit's o'er the plain; T was musical, but sadly sweet, Such as when winds and harp-strings meet, And take a long unmeasured tone, To mortal minstrelsy unknown.
It seem'd to those within the wall
A cry prophetic of their fall. It struck even the besieger's ear With something ominous and drear, An undefined and sudden thrill
Which makes the heart a moment still, Then beat with quicker pulse, ashamed 280 Of that strange sense its silence framed; Such as a sudden passing-bell
Wakes, though but for a stranger's knell.
The tent of Alp was on the shore;
The sound was hush'd, the prayer was o'er;
The watch was set, the night-round made, All mandates issued and obey'd. Tis but another anxious night,
His pains the morrow may requite
With all revenge and love can pay, In guerdon for their long delay. Few hours remain, and he hath need Of rest, to nerve for many a deed Of slaughter; but within his soul The thoughts like troubled waters roll. He stood alone among the host; Not his the loud fanatic boast To plant the crescent o'er the cross, Or risk a life with little loss, Secure in paradise to be
By Houris loved immortally. Nor his, what burning patriots feel, The stern exaltedness of zeal, Profuse of blood, untired in toil, When battling on the parent soil. He stood alone a renegade Against the country he betray'd; He stood alone amidst his band, Without a trusted heart or hand. They follow'd him, for he was brave, And great the spoil he got and gave; They crouch'd to him, for he had skill To warp and wield the vulgar will: But still his Christian origin
With them was little less than sin. They envied even the faithless fame He earn'd beneath a Moslem name; Since he, their mightiest chief, had been In youth a bitter Nazarene.
They did not know how pride can stoop, 320 When baffled feelings withering droop; They did not know how hate can burn In hearts once changed from soft to
He felt his soul become more light Beneath the freshness of the night. Cool was the silent sky, though calm, And bathed his brow with airy balm. Behind, the camp; before him lay, In many a winding creek and bay, Lepanto's gulf; and, on the brow Of Delphi's hill, unshaken snow, High and eternal, such as shone Through thousand summers brightly gone, Along the gulf, the mount, the clime: It will not melt, like man, to time. Tyrant and slave are swept away, Less form'd to wear before the ray; But that white veil, the lightest, frailest, Which on the mighty mount thou hailest, While tower and tree are torn and rent, Shines o'er its craggy battlement: In form a peak, in height a cloud, In texture like a hovering shroud, Thus high by parting Freedom spread, As from her fond abode she fled, And linger'd on the spot, where long Her prophet spirit spake in song. Oh! still her step at moments falters O'er wither'd fields, and ruin'd altars, And fain would wake, in souls too broken, By pointing to each glorious token: But vain her voice, till better days Dawn in those yet remember'd rays, Which shone upon the Persian flying, And saw the Spartan smile in dying.
Not mindless of these mighty times Was Alp, despite his flight and crimes;
The very gale their names seem'd sighing: The waters murmur'd of their name; The woods were peopled with their fame; The silent pillar, lone and grey, Claim'd kindred with their sacred clay; Their spirits wrapp'd the dusky mountain, Their memory sparkled o'er the fountain; The meanest rill, the mightiest river Roll'd mingling with their fame for ever. Despite of every yoke she bears, That land is glory's still and theirs! "T is still a watch-word to the earth: When man would do a deed of worth He points to Greece, and turns to tread, So sanction'd, on the tyrant's head; He looks to her, and rushes on Where life is lost, or freedom won.
Still by the shore Alp mutely mused, And woo'd the freshness Night diffused. There shrinks no ebb in that tideless sea, Which changeless rolls eternally;
So that wildest of waves, in their angriest mood,
Scarce break on the bounds of the land for a rood;
And the powerless moon beholds them flow,
Heedless if she come or go: Calm or high, in main or bay,
On their course she hath no sway. The rock unworn its base doth bare, And looks o'er the surf, but it comes not there;
And the fringe of the foam may be seen
On the line that it left long ages ago:
A smooth short space of yellow sand Between it and the greener land.
He wander'd on, along the beach, Till within the range of a carbine's reach Of the leaguer'd wall; but they saw him not,
Or how could he 'scape from the hostile shot?
Did traitors lurk in the Christians' hold? Were their hands grown stiff, or their hearts wax'd cold?
I know not, in sooth; but from yonder wall There flash'd no fire and there hiss'd no ball,
Though he stood beneath the bastion's frown, That flank'd the sea-ward gate of the town; Though he heard the sound, and could almost tell
The sullen words of the sentinel, As his measured step on the stone below Clank'd, as he paced it to and fro; And he saw the lean dogs beneath the wall Hold o'er the dead their carnival, Gorging and growling o'er carcass and limb;
They were too busy to bark at him! From a Tartar's skull they had stripp'd the flesh,
As ye peel the fig when its fruit is fresh; And their white tusks crunch'd o'er the whiter skull,
As it slipp'd through their jaws, when their edge grew dull,
As they lazily mumbled the bones of the dead,
When they scarce could rise from the spot
Alp turn'd him from the sickening sight: Never had shaken his nerves in fight;
480 But he better could brook to behold the dying,
Deep in the tide of their warm blood lying,
Scorch'd with the death-thirst, and writhing in vain,
Than the perishing dead who are past all pain.
There is something of pride in the perilous hour,
Whate'er be the shape in which death may lower;
For Fame is there to say who bleeds, And Honour's eye on daring deeds! But when all is past, it is humbling to tread O'er the weltering field of the tombless dead,
And see worms of the earth, and fowls of the air,
Beasts of the forest, all gathering there; All regarding man as their prey, All rejoicing in his decay.
The rose was yet upon her cheek, But mellow'd with a tenderer streak: Where was the play of her soft lips fled? Gone was the smile that enliven'd their red. The ocean's calm within their view, Beside her eye had less of blue; But like that cold wave it stood still, And its glance, though clear, was chill. Around her form a thin robe twining, Nought conceal'd her bosom shining; Through the parting of her hair, Floating darkly downward there,
Her rounded arm show'd white and bare.
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