Page:Byron - Hours of idleness. A series of poems original and translated, by George Gordon Lord Byron a minor, 1807.djvu/24

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Of the mail-cover'd Barons, who proudly to battle,
 Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain.
The escutcheon and shield, which with ev'y blast rattle.
 Are the only sad vestiges now that remain.

No more doth old Robert, with harp-stringing numbers,
 Raise a flame in the breast, for the war-laurell'd wreath:
Near Askalon's towers, John of Horiston^[1] slumbers,
 Unnerv'd is the hand of his minstrel, by death.

Paul and Hubert too sleep, in the valley of Cressy,
 For the safety of Edward and England they fell;
My fathers! the tears of your country redress you;
 How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell.

On Marston,^[2] with Rupert,^[3] 'gainst traitors contending,
Four brothers enrich'd, with their blood, the bleak field;

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1. Horiston Castle, in Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the Byron family.
2. The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated.
3. Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the fleet, in the reign of Charles II.