Page:Miscellaneous Plays 1.pdf/440

OFFICER.

I come to tell you that by Mah'met's orders

The cruel Turks have stopp'd their bloody work,
And peace again is in our walls.

FIRST WOMAN.

Say'st thou?

And art thou sure of this? and hast thou seen it?

OFFICER.

Yes, I have seen it. Like a sudden gleam

Of fierce returning light at the storm's close,
Glancing on horrid sights of waste and sorrow,
Came the swift word of peace, and to the eye
Gave consciousness of that which the wild uproar
And dire confusion of the carnage hid.

FIRST WOMAN.

Alas! be there such sights within our walls?

OFFICER.

Yes, maid, such sights of blood! such sights of nature!

In expectation of their horrid fate,
Widows, and childless parents, and 'lorn dames,
Sat by their unwept dead with fixed gaze,
In horrible stillness.
But when the voice of grace was heard aloud,
So strongly stirr'd within their roused souls
The love of life, that, even amidst those horrors