Page:Poetical Remains.pdf/203

Their sole support;—and heavily and prone
They fell—the car, the steed, the rider, all o'erthrown!

It came, the hour of wrath, the hour of woe,
Which to deep solitude and tears consigned
The peopled realm, the realm of joy and mirth;
A gloom was on the heavens, no mantling glow
Announced the morn—it seemed as nature pined,
And boding clouds obscured the sunbeams birth;
        While, startling the pale earth,
Bursting upon the mighty and the proud
        With visitation dread,
Their crests the Eternal in his anger bowed,
And raised barbarian nations o'er their head,
The inflexible, the fierce, who seek not gold,
But vengeance on their foes, relentless, uncontrolled.

Then was the sword let loose, the flaming sword
Of the strong Infidel's ignoble hand,