A priest at her altars, a chief in her halls,
A hearth in her mansions, a stone on her walls.
God and the prophet Alia Hu !
Up to the skies with that wild halloo !
'There the breach lies for passage, the ladder to scale ;
And your hands on your sabres, and how should ye fail ?
He who first downs with the red cross may crave
His heart's dearest wish; let him ask it, and have! '
Thus uttered Coumourgi, the dauntless vizier;
The reply was the brandish of sabre and spear,
And the shout of fierce thousands in joyous ire :
Silence hark to the signal fire !
THE ASSAULT
As the spring-tides, with heavy plash,
From the cliffs invading dash
Huge fragments, sapped by the ceaseless flow,
Till white and thundering down they go,
Like the avalanche's snow
On the Alpine vales below;
Thus at length, outbreathed and worn,
Corinth's sons were downward borne
By the long and oft renewed
Charge of the Moslem multitude.
In firmness they stood, and in masses they fell,
Heaped by the host of the infidel,
Hand to hand, and foot to foot :
Nothing there, save death, was mute:
Stroke, and thrust, and flash, and cry
For quarter or for victory,
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