Narrative and Lyric Poems (first series) for use in the Lower School | Page 3

and affright:
From all the
spacious champaign 100
To Rome men took their flight.
A mile
around the city,
The throng stopped up the ways;
A fearful sight it
was to see
Through two long nights and days. 105
XIV
For aged folks on crutches,
And women great with child,
And
mothers sobbing over babes
That clung to them and smiled,
And
sick men borne in litters 110
High on the necks of slaves,
And
troops of sunburnt husbandmen
With reaping-hooks and staves,
XV
And droves of mules and asses
Laden with skins of wine, 115
And
endless flocks of goats and sheep,
And endless herds of kine,
And
endless trains of wagons
That creaked beneath the weight
Of
corn-sacks and of household goods, 120
Choked every roaring gate.
XVI
Now, from the rock Tarpeian,[23]
Could the wan burghers spy
The
line of blazing villages
Red in the midnight sky. 125
The
Fathers[24] of the City,
They sat all night and day,
For every hour
some horseman came
With tidings of dismay.
XVII
To eastward and to westward 130
Have spread the Tuscan bands;

Nor house nor fence nor dovecote
In Crustumerium[25] stands.

Verbenna down to Ostia[26]
Hath wasted all the plain; 135
Astur
hath stormed Janiculum,[27]
And the stout guards are slain.
XVIII

I wis,[28] in all the Senate,
There was no heart so bold,
But sore it
ached, and fast it beat; 140
When that ill news was told.
Forthwith
up rose the Consul,
Up rose the Fathers all;
In haste they girded up
their gowns,
And hied them to the wall. 145
XIX
They held a council standing
Before the River-Gate[30];
Short time
was there, ye well may guess,
For musing or debate.
Out spake the
Consul roundly: 150
"The bridge[31] must straight go down;
For,
since Janiculum is lost,
Naught else can save the town."
XX
Just then a scout came flying,
All wild with haste and fear; 155
"To
arms! to arms! Sir Consul:
Lars Porsena is here."
On the low hills to
westward
The Consul fixed his eye,
And saw the swarthy storm of
dust 160
Rise fast along the sky.
XXI
And nearer fast and nearer
Doth the red whirlwind come;
And
louder still and still more loud,
From underneath that rolling cloud,
165
Is heard the trumpet's war-note proud,
The trampling, and the
hum.
And plainly and more plainly
Now through the gloom appears,

Far to left and far to right, 170
In broken gleams of dark-blue light,

The long array of helmets bright,
The long array of spears.
XXII
And plainly, and more plainly
Above that glimmering line, 175

Now might ye see the banners
Of twelve fair cities[32] shine;
But
the banner of proud Clusium
Was highest of them all,
The terror of
the Umbrian,[33] 180
The terror of the Gaul.[34]

XXIII
And plainly and more plainly
Now might the burghers know,
By
port and vest,[35] by horse and crest,
Each warlike Lucumo.[36] 185

There Cilnius of Arretium
On his fleet roan[37] was seen;
And
Astur of the fourfold shield,[38]
Girt with the brand none else may
wield;
Tolumnius with the belt of gold, 190
And dark Verbenna
from the hold
By reedy Thrasymene.[39]
XXIV
Fast by the royal standard,
O'erlooking all the war,
Lars Porsena of
Clusium 195
Sat in his ivory car.
By the right wheel rode Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name;
And by the left false Sextus,
That
wrought the deed of shame. 200
XXV
But when the face of Sextus
Was seen among the foes,
A yell that
rent the firmament
From all the town arose.
On the house-tops was
no woman 205
But spat towards him and hissed,
No child but
screamed out curses,
And shook its little fist.
XXVI
But the Consul's brow was sad,
And the Consul's speech was low.
210
And darkly looked he at the wall,
And darkly at the foe.

"Their van will be upon us
Before the bridge goes down;
And if
they once may win the bridge, 215
What hope to save the town?"
XXVII
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every
man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late, 220
And how can
man die better
Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of his Gods,

XXVIII
And for the tender mother 225
Who dandled him to rest,
And for
the wife that nurses
His baby at her breast,
And for the holy
maidens[40]
Who feed the eternal flame, 230
To save them from
false Sextus
That wrought the deed of shame?"
XXIX
"Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may,
I,
with two more to help me, 235
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon
strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will
stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?" 240
XXX
Then out spake Spurius Lartius;
A Ramnian[41] proud was he:
"Lo,
I will stand at thy right hand,
And keep the bridge with thee."
And
out spake strong Herminius; 245
Of Titian blood was he:
"I will
abide on thy left side,
And keep the bridge with thee."
XXXI
"Horatius," quoth the Consul,
"As thou sayest, so let it be," 250

And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless Three.

For Romans in Rome's quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor
son nor wife, nor limb nor life, 255
In the brave days of old.[42]
XXXII
Then none was for a party;
Then all were for the state;
Then the
great man helped the poor.
And the poor man loved the