Sharing with the most wretched, he would bid us
Bear with our miseries cheerly.
"Thus distress'd
Lest all should perish thus, our chieftains doom'd
The helpless ones—dreadful alternative,650
To seek their fates. I never shall forget
The horrors of that hour! Oh God forbid
That my worst foe should ever feel such pangs.
Then as our widow wives clung round our necks,
And the deep sob of anguish interrupted655
The prayer of parting—even the pious priest
As he implor'd his God to strengthen us,
And told us we should meet again in Heaven,
He groan'd and curs'd in bitterness of heart[1]
That merciless man—The wretched crowd pass'd on: 660
My wife—my children—thro' the gates they pass'd—
Then the gates clos'd Would I were in my grave
That I might lose remembrance.
"What is man
- ↑ Line 659 After the capture of the city "Luca Italico, the Vicar Generall of the archbishop-
