Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/140

Restore what Time hath laboured to deface.
Yet these proud Pillars claim no passing sigh;
Unmoved the Moslem sits, the light Greek carols by.

XI.

But who, of all the plunderers of yon Fane^[1]
On high—where Pallas linger'd, loth to flee
The latest relic of her ancient reign—
The last, the worst, dull spoiler, who was he?^[2]
Blush, Caledonia! such thy son could be!
England! I joy no child he was of thine:
Thy free-born men should spare what once was free;
Yet they could violate each saddening shrine,
And bear these altars o'er the long-reluctant brine.^N5

XII.

But most the modern Pict's ignoble boast,^[3][4]

To rive what Goth, and Turk, and Time hath spared:^N6

1. [For note on the "Elgin Marbles," see Introduction to the Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 453-456.]

2. The last, the worst dull Robber, who was he?
   Blush Scotland such a slave thy son could be—
   England! I joy no child he was of thine:
   Thy freeborn men revere what once was free,
   Nor tear the Sculpture from its saddening shrine,
   Nor bear the spoil away athwart the weeping Brine.—[MS. D. erased.]

3. This be the wittol Picts ignoble boast.—[MS. D.]
   To rive what Goth and Turk, and Time hath spared:
   Cold and accursed as his native coast.—[MS. D. erased.]

4. ["On the plaster wall of the Chapel of Pandrosos adjoining the Erechtheum, these words have been very deeply cut—

   'Quod non fecerunt Goti,
   Hoc fecerunt Scoti'"

   (Travels in Albania, 1858, i. 299). M. Darmesteter quotes the original: "mot sur les Barberini" ("Quod non fecere