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XXIII.

"So in the populous City, a young maiden
Has baffled havoc of the prey which he
Marks as his own, whene'er with chains o'erladen
Men make them arms to hurl down tyranny,
False arbiter between the bound and free;
And o'er the land, in hamlets and in towns
The multitudes collect tumultuously,

And throng in arms; but tyranny disowns Their claim, and gathers strength around its trembling thrones.

XXIV.

« Blood soon, although unwillingly, to shed
The free cannot forbear-the Queen of Slaves,
The hood-wink'd Angel of the blind and dead,
Custom, with iron mace points to the graves
When her own standard desolately waves
Over the dust of Prophets and of Kings.
Many yet stand in her array-she paves
Her path with human hearts,' and o'er it flings
The wildering gloom of her immeasurable wings.
XXV.

.There is a plain beneath the City's wall,
Bounded by misty mountains, wide and vast,
Millions there lift at Freedom's thrilling call
Ten thousand standards wide, they load the blast
Which bears one sound of many voices past,
And startles on his throne their sceptred foe:
He sits amid his idle pomp aghast,

And that his power hath past away, doth knowWhy pause the victor swords to seal his overthrow?

XXVI.

<< The tyrant's guards resistance yet maintain : Fearless, and fierce, and hard as beasts of blood; They stand a speck amid the peopled plain; Carnage and ruin have been made their food From infancy-ill has become their good, And for its hateful sake their will has wove The chains which eat their hearts-the multitude Surrounding them, with words of human love, Seek from their own decay their stubborn minds to move.

XXVII.

Over the land is felt a sudden pause,

As night and day those ruthless bands around
The watch of love is kept:-a trance which awes
The thoughts of men with hope-as when the sound
Of whirlwind, whose fierce blasts the waves and clouds
confound,

Dies suddenly, the mariner in fear

Feels silence sink upon his heart-thus bound, The conquerors pause, and oh! may freemen ne'er Clasp the relentless knees of Dread, the murderer! XXVIII.

If blood be shed, 't is but a change and choice
Of bonds, from slavery to cowardice
A wretched fall!-uplift thy charmed voice,
Pour on those evil men the love that lies
Hovering within those spirit-soothing eyes—
Arise, my friend, farewell!-As thus he spake,
From the green earth lightly I did arise,
As one out of dim dreams that doth awake,
And look'd upon the depth of that reposing lake.

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The spear transfix'd my arm that was uplifted
In swift expostulation, and the blood

Gush'd round its point: I smiled, and—«< Oh! thou gifted

With eloquence which shall not be withstood,
Flow thus!>>-I cried in joy, thou vital flood,
Until my heart be dry, ere thus the cause

For which thou wert aught worthy be subdued-Ah, ye are pale,-ye weep,-your passions pause,"T is well! ye feel the truth of love's benignant laws. X.

<< Soldiers, our brethren and our friends are slain :
Ye murder'd them, I think, as they did sleep!
Alas, what have ye done? the slightest pain
Which ye might suffer, there were eyes to weep;

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XII.

Join then your hands and hearts, and let the past Be as a grave which gives not up its dead To evil thoughts-A film then overcast My sense with dimness, for the wound, which bled Freshly, swift shadows o'er mine eyes had shed. When I awoke, I lay 'mid friends and foes, And earnest countenances on me shed

The light of questioning looks, whilst one did close My wound with balmiest herbs, and soothed me to re

pose.

XIII.

And one whose spear had pierced me, lean'd beside With quivering lips and humid eyes;—and all Seem'd like some brothers on a journey wide Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall In a strange land, round one whom they might call Their friend, their chief, their father, for assay Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day.

XIV.

Lifting the thunder of their acclamation, Towards the City then the multitude, And I among them, went in joy-a nation Made free by love;-a mighty brotherhood Link'd by a jealous interchange of good; A glorious pageant, more magnificent Than kingly slaves array'd in gold and blood; When they return from carnage, and are sent In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement.

XV.

Afar, the City walls were throng'd on high,
And myriads on each giddy turret clung,
And to each spire far lessening in the sky,
Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung;
As we approach'd a shout of joyauce sprung
At once from all the crowd, as if the vast
And peopled Earth its boundless skies among
The sudden clamour of delight had cast,

When from before its face some general wreck had past.

XVI.

Our armies through the City's hundred gates
Were pour'd, like brooks which to the rocky lair
Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits,
Throng from the mountains when the storms are
there;

And as we past through the calm sunny air
A thousand flower-inwoven crowns were shed,
The token flowers of truth and freedom fair,
And fairest hands bound them on many a head,
Those angels of love's heaven, that over all was spread.
XVII.

I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision: Those bloody bands so lately reconciled, Were, ever as they went, by the contrition Of anger turn'd to love from ill beguiled, And every one on them more gently smiled, Because they had done evil;-the sweet awe Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow mild, And did with soft attraction ever draw Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.

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She stood beside him like a rainbow braided
Within some storm, when scarce its shadows vast
From the blue paths of the swift sun have faded;
A sweet and solemn smile, like Cythna's, cast
One moment's light, which made my heart beat fast,
O'er that child's parted lips-a gleam of bliss,
A shade of vanish'd days,-
-as the tears past
Which wrapt it, even as with a father's kiss

Where was that Maid? I asked, but it was known of I press'd those softest eyes in trembling tenderness.

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Which starred with sunny gems, in its own lustre shone. And when I spake, for sobs she could not answer me.

XXI.

Alone, but for one child, who led before him
A graceful dance: the only living thing
Of all the crowd, which thither to adore him
Flock'd yesterday, who solace sought to bring
In his abandonment!-she knew the King
Had praised her dance of yore, and now she wove
Its circles, aye weeping and murmuring

'Mid her sad task of unregarded love,

XXVII.

At last the tyrant cried, She hungers, slave,
Stab her, or give her bread!-It was a tone
Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave
Might hear. I trembled, for the truth was known,
He with this child had thus been left alone,
And neither had gone forth for food,-but he
In mingled pride and awe cower'd near his throne,
And she, a nursling of captivity,

That to no smiles it might his speechless sadness move. Knew nought beyond those walls, nor what such change

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'T was midnight now, the eve of that great day
Whereon the many nations at whose call
The chains of earth like mist melted away,
Decreed to hold a sacred Festival,

A rite to attest the equality of all

Who live. So to their homes, to dream or wake All went. The sleepless silence did recal

Laone to my thoughts, with hopes that make

Sunk in a gulf of scorn from which none may him rear! The flood recede from which their thirst they seek to

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