108
CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE.
[CANTO II.
Though in thy name the slaves her bosom wrung.
Tell not the deed to blushing Europe's ears;
The Ocean Queen, the free Britannia, bears
The last poor plunder from a bleeding land:
Yes, she, whose generous aid her name endears,
Tore down those remnants with a Harpy's hand,
- ↑ After stanza xiii. the MS. inserts the two following stanzas:—
Come then, ye classic Thieves of each degree,
Dark Hamilton[a] and sullen Aberdeen,
Come pilfer all the Pilgrim loves to see,
All that yet consecrates the fading scene:
Ah! better were it ye had never been,
Nor ye, nor Elgin, nor that lesser wight,
The victim sad of vase-collecting spleen,
House-furnisher withal, one Thomas[b] hight,
Than ye should bear one stone from wronged Athenæ's site.
