4. Macedonia sends forth her invincible race; For a time they abandon the cave and the chase: But those scarfs of blood-red shall be redder, before The sabre is sheathed and the battle is o'er. 5. Then the pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves, And teach the pale Franks what it is to be slaves, Shall leave on the beach the long galley and oar, And track to his covert the captive on shore. 6. I ask not the pleasures that riches supply, Shall win the young bride with her long flowing hair, 7. I love the fair face of the maid in her youth, 8.. Remember the moment when Previsa fell, The shrieks of the conquered, the conqueror's yell; The roofs that we fired, and the plunder we shared, The wealthy we slaughtered, the lovely we spared. 9. I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear; He neither must know who would serve the Vizier Since the days of our prophet the Crescent ne'er saw A chief ever glorious like Ali Pashaw. 10. Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped, Let the yellow-haired (1) Giaours (2) view his horse-tail (3) with dread; When his Delhis (4) come dashing in blood o'er the banks, How few shall escape from the Muscovite ranks! II. Selictar! (5) unsheath then our chief's scimitar : LXXIII. Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth! Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great! Who now shall lead thy scattered children forth, And long accustomed bondage uncreate? Not such thy sons who whilome did await, The hopeless warriors of a willing doom, In bleak Thermopyla's sepulchral straitOh! who that gallant spirit shall resume, Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb? (1) Yellow is the epithet given to the Russians. (2) Infidel. (3) Horse-tails are the insignia of a Pacha, LXXIV. Spirit of freedom! when on Phyle's brow Not thirty tyrants now enforce the chain, Nor rise thy sons, but idly rail in vain, LXXV. In all save form alone, how changed! and who Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage, Or tear their name defiled from Slavery's mournful page. LXXVI. Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow By their right arms the conquest must be wrought? Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? no! True, they may lay your proud despoilers low, But not for you will Freedom's altars flame. Shades of the Helots! triumph o'er your foe! Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same; Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thine years of shame. LXXVII. The city won for Allah from the Giaour, The Giaour from Othman's race again may wrest; And the Serai's impenetrable tower Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest; Or Wahab's rebel brood who dared divest The prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil, May wind their path of blood along the West; But ne'er will freedom seek this fated soil, But slave succeed to slave through years of endless toil. LXXVIII. Yet mark their mirth-ere lenten days begin, LXXIX. And whose more rife with merriment than thine, O Stamboul! once the empress of their reign? Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrine, And Greece her very altars eyes in vain : (Alas! her woes will still pervade my strain!) Gay were her minstrels once, for free her throng, All felt the common joy they now must feign, Nor oft I've seen such sight, nor heard such song, As wooed the eye and thrilled the Bosphorus along. LXXX. Loud was the lightsome tumult of the shore, Oft Music changed, but never ceased her tone, And timely echoed back the measured oar, And rippling waters made a pleasant moan : The Queen of tides on high consenting shone, And when a transient breeze, swept o'er the wave, 'Twas, as if darting from her heavenly throne, A brighter glance her form reflected gave, Till sparkling billows seemed to light the banks they lave. LXXXI. Glanced many a light caique along the foam, These hours, and only these, redeem life's years of ill! LXXXII. But, midst the throng in merry masquerade, Lurk there no hearts that throb with secret paiu, Even through the closest searment half betrayed? To such the gentle murmurs of the main Seem to re-echo all they mourn in vain ; To such the gladness of the gamesome crowd Is source of wayward thought and stern disdain : How do they loathe the laughter idly loud, And long to change the robe of revel for the shroud! |