Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/42

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2

HOURS OF IDLENESS.


2.

Of the mail-cover'd Barons, who, proudly, to battle,[1]
 Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain,[2]
The escutcheon and shield, which with ev'ry blast rattle,
 Are the only sad vestiges now that remain.


3.

No more doth old Robert, with harp-stringing numbers,
 Raise a flame, in the breast, for the war-laurell'd wreath;
Near Askalon's towers, John of Horistan[3] slumbers,
 Unnerv'd is the hand of his minstrel, by death.


4.

Paul and Hubert too sleep in the valley of Cressy;
 For the safety of Edward and England they fell:
My Fathers! the tears of your country redress ye:
 How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell.


5.

On Marston,[4] with Rupert,[5] 'gainst traitors contending,
 Four brothers enrich'd, with their blood, the bleak field;
  1. ↑ Of the barons of old, who once proudly to battle.—[4to]
  2. ↑ [No record of any crusading ancestors in the Byron family can be found. Moore conjectures that the legend was suggested by some groups of heads on the old panelwork at Newstead, which appear to represent Christian soldiers and Saracens, and were, most probably, put up before the Abbey came into the possession of the family.]
  3. ↑ Horistan Castle, in Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the B—R—N family [4to]. [Horiston.—4to.]
  4. ↑ The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated.
  5. ↑ Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the Fleet, in the reign of Charles II.
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