Haunted by phantoms, he had fled his home,
With savage beasts in solitude to roam;
Wild as the waves, and wandering as the wind,
No art could tame him, and no chains could bind:
Already seven disastrous years had shed
Mildew and blast on his unshelter'd head;
His brain was smitten by the sun at noon,
His heart was wither'd by the cold night moon.
""Twas Cain, the sire of nations:-Jubal knew
His kindred looks, and tremblingly withdrew;
He, darting like the blaze of sudden fire,
Leap'd o'er the space between, and grasp'd the lyre:
Sooner with life the struggling bard would part,
And, ere the fiend could tear it from his heart,
He hurl'd his hand, with one tremendous stroke,
O'er all the strings; whence in a whirlwind broke
Such tones of terror, dissonance, despair,
As till that hour had never jarr'd in air.
Astonish'd into marble at the shock,
Backward stood Cain, unconscious as a rock,
Cold, breathless, motionless through all his frame:
But soon his visage quicken'd into flame,
When Jubal's hand the crashing jargon changed
To melting harmony, and nimbly ranged
From chord to chord, ascending sweet and clear,
Then rolling down in thunder on the ear;
With power the pulse of anguish to restrain,
And charm the evil spirit from the brain.
"Slowly recovering from that trance profound,
Bewilder'd, touch'd, transported with the sound,
Cain view'd himself, the bard, the earth, the sky,
While wonder flash'd and faded in his eye,
And reason, by alternate frenzy crost,
Now seem'd restored, and now for ever lost.
So shines the moon, by glimpses, through her shrouds,
When windy Darkness rides upon the clouds,
Till through the blue, serene, and silent night,
She reigns in full tranquillity of light.
Jubal, with eager hope, beheld the chase
Of strange emotions hurrying o'er his face,
And waked his noblest numbers to control
The tide and tempest of the maniac's soul:
Through many a maze of melody they flew,
They rose like incense, they distill'd like dew,
Pour'd through the sufferer's breast delicious balm,
And soothed remembrance till remorse grew calm,
Till Cain forsook the solitary wild,
Led by the minstrel like a weaned child.
Oh! had you seen him to his home restored,
How young and old ran forth to meet their lord;
How friends and kindred on his neck did fall,
Weeping aloud, while Cain outwept them all:
But hush!-thenceforward, when recoiling care
Lower'd on his brow, and sadden'd to despair,
The lyre of Jubal, with divinest art,
Repell'd the demon, and revived his heart.
He ceased: the mute assembly rose in tears;
Delight and wonder were chastised with fears;
That heavenly harmony, unheard before,
Awoke the feeling,-" Who shall hear it more?"
The sun had set in glory on their sight,
For them in vain might morn restore the light;
Though self-devoted, through each mortal frame,
At thought of Death, a cold sick shuddering came,
Nature's infirmity;-but faith was given,
The flame that lifts the sacrifice to Heaven:
Through doubt and darkness then beyond the skies
Eternal prospects open'd on their eyes;
Already seem'd the immortal spirit free,
And Death was swallowed up in victory.
The Patriarchs and their Families carried away cap tive by a Detachment from the Army of the Invaders.-The tomb of Abel: his Murder by Cain described. The Origin of the Giants: the Infancy and early Adventures of their King: the Leader of their Host encamped in Eden.
THE flocks and herds throughout the glen reposed;
No human eyelid there in slumber closed;
None, save the infant's on the mother's breast ;—
With arms of love caressing and carest,
She, while her elder offspring round her clung,
Each eye intent on hers and mute each tongue,
The voice of Death in every murmur heard,
And felt his touch in every limb that stirr'd.
At midnight, down the forest hills, a train
Of eager warriors from the host of Cain,
Burst on the stillness of the scene:-they spread
In bands, to clutch the victims ere they fled;
Of flight unmindful, at their summons, rose
Those victims, meekly yielding to their foes;
Though woman wept to leave her home behind,
The weak were comforted, the strong resign'd,
And ere the moon descending o'er the vale,
Grew, at the bright approach of morning, pale,
Collected thus, the patriarchal clan,
With strengthen'd confidence, their march began,
Since not in ashes were their dwellings laid,
And death, though threaten'd still, was still delay'd.
Struck with their fearless innocence, they saw
Their fierce assailants check'd with sacred awe;
The foe became a phalanx of defence,
And brought them, like a guard of Angels, thence.
A vista-path, that through the forest led
(By Javan shunn'd when from the camp he fled),
The pilgrims track'd till on the mountain's height
They met the sun new ris'n, in glorious light;
Empurpled mists along the landscape roll'd,
Thus Song, the breath of heaven, had power to And all the orient flamed with clouds of gold.
In chains of harmony the mightiest mind;
Thus Music's empire in the soul began,
The first-born Poet ruled the first-born Man."
While Javan sung, the shadows fell around, The moving glow-worm brighten'd on the ground,
Here, while they halted, on their knees they raise
To God the sacrifice of prayer and praise;
-Glory to Thee, for every blessing shed,
In days of peace, on our protected head;
Glory to Thee, for fortitude to bear
The wrath of man, rejoicing o'er despair;
Glory to Thee, whatever ill befall,
For faith on thy victorious name to call;
Thine own eternal purposes fulfil;
We come, O God! to suffer all thy will."
Refresh'd and rested, on their course they went,
Ere the clouds melted from the firmament;
Odors abroad the winds of morning breathe,
And fresh with dew the herbage sprang beneath;
Down from the hills, that gently sloped away
To the broad river shining into day,
They pass'd, along the brink the path they kept,
Where high aloof o'er-arching willows wept,
Whose silvery foliage glisten'd in the beam,
And floating shadows fringed the chequer'd stream.
Adjacent rose a myrtle-planted mound, Whose spiry top a granite fragment crown'd; Tinctured with many-color'd moss, the stone, Rich as a cloud of summer evening, shone Amidst encircling verdure, that array'd The beauteous hillock with a cope of shade.
"Javan!" said Enoch, "on this spot began The fatal curse;-man perish'd here by man: The earliest death a son of Adam died Was murder, and that murder fratricide! Here Abel fell a corse along this shore; Here Cain's recoiling footsteps reek'd with gore: Horror upraised his locks, unloosed his knees; He heard a voice; he hid among the trees; Where is thy brother?'-From the whirlwind came The voice of God, amidst enfolding flame:
Am I my brother's keeper?' hoarse and low, Cain mutter'd from the copse, that I should know?" What hast thou done?-For vengeance to the skies, Lo! from the dust the blood of Abel cries: Curst from the earth that drank his blood, with toil Thine hand shall plow in vain her barren soil; An exile and a wanderer thou shalt be; A brother's eye shall never look on thee.'
"The shuddering culprit answer'd in despair, Greater the punishment than flesh can bear.' Yet shalt thou bear it; on thy brow reveal'd, Thus be thy sentence and thy safeguard seal'd. Silently, swiftly as the lightning's blast, A hand of fire athwart his temples pass'd; He ran, as in the terror of a dream, To quench his burning anguish in the stream; But, bending o'er the brink, the swelling wave Back to the eye his branded visage gave; As soon on murder'd Abel durst he look; Yet power to fly his palsied limbs forsook; There, turn'd to stone for his presumptuous crime, A monument of wrath to latest time, Might Cain have stood; but Mercy raised his head In prayer for help, his strength return'd, he fled. That mount of myrtles, o'er their favorite child, Eve planted, and the hand of Adam piled; Yon mossy stone, above his ashes raised, His altar once, with Abel's offering blazed, When God well pleased beheld the flames arise, And smiled acceptance on the sacrifice."
Enoch to Javan, walking at his side, Thus held discourse apart: the youth replied;
"Relieved from toil, though Cain is gone to rest,
And the turf flowers on his dis burthen'd breast,
Amongst his race the murdering spirit reigns,
But riots fiercest in the giants' veins.
-Sprung from false leagues, when monstrous love
combined
The sons of God and daughters of mankind,
Self-styled the progeny of Heaven and earth,
Eden first gave the world's oppressors birth;
Thence, far away, beneath the rising moon,
Or where the shadow vanishes at noon,
The adulterous mothers from the sires withdrew:
-Nurst in luxuriant climes, their offspring grew;
Till, as in stature o'er mankind they tower'd,
And giant-strength all mortal strength o'erpower'd,
To Heaven the proud blasphemers raised their eyes,
And scorn'd the tardy vengeance of the skies:
On earth invincible, they sternly broke
Love's willing bonds, and Nature's kindred yoke;
Mad for dominion, with remorseless sway,
Compell'd their reptile-brethren to obey,
And doom'd their human herds, with thankless toil,
Like brutes, to grow and perish on the soil,
Their sole inheritance, through lingering years,
The bread of misery and the cup of tears,
The tasks of oxen, with the hire of slaves,
Dishonor'd lives, and desecrated graves.
"When war, that self-inflicted scourge of man, His boldest crime and bitterest curse,-began; As lions fierce, as forest-cedars tall, And terrible as torrents in their fall, Headlong from rocks, through vales and vineyards hurl'd,
These men of prey laid waste the eastern world.
They taught their tributary hordes to wield
The sword, red-flaming, through the death-strown
field,
With strenuous arm the uprooted rock to throw,
Glance the light arrow from the bounding bow,
Whirl the broad shield to meet the darted stroke,
And stand to combat, like the unyielding oak.
Then eye from eye with fell suspicion turn'd,
In kindred breasts unnatural hatred burn'd!
Brother met brother in the lists of strife,
The son lay lurking for the father's life;
With rabid instinct, men who never knew
Each other's face before, each other slew;
All tribes, all nations learn'd the fatal art,
And every hand was arm'd to pierce a heart.
Nor man alone the giants' might subdued;
-The camel, wean'd from quiet solitude,
Grazed round their camps, or slow along the road,
'Midst marching legions, bore the servile load.
With flying forelock and dishevell❜d mane,
They caught the wild steed prancing o'er the plain,
For war or pastime rein'd his fiery force;
Fleet as the wind he stretch'd along the course,
Or loudly neighing at the trumpet's sound,
With hoofs of thunder smote the indented ground.
The enormous elephant obey'd their will,
And, tamed to cruelty with direst skill,
Roar'd for the battle, when he felt the goad,
And his proud lord his sinewy neck bestrode,
Through crashing ranks resistless havoc bore,
And writhed his trunk, and bathed his tusks in gore.
Thus while the giants trampled friends and foes, With hardy exercise, and cruel art, Amongst their tribe a mighty chieftain rose; His birth mysterious, but traditions tell What strange events his infancy befell.
"A goat-herd fed his flock on many a steep,
Where Eden's rivers swell the southern deep;
A melancholy man, who dwelt alone,
Yet far abroad his evil fame was known,
The first of woman born, that might presume
To wake the dead bones mouldering in the tomb,
And, from the gulf of uncreated night,
Call phantoms of futurity to light.
"T was said his voice could stay the falling flood,
Eclipse the sun, and turn the moon to blood,
Roll back the planets on their golden cars,
And from the firmament unfix the stars.
Spirits of fire and air, of sea and land,
Came at his call, and flew at his command;
His spells so potent, that his changing breath
Open'd or shut the gates of life and death.
O'er Nature's powers he claim'd supreme control,
And held communion with all Nature's soul:
The name and place of every herb he knew,
Its healing balsam, or pernicious dew:
The meanest reptile, and the noblest birth
Of ocean's caverns, or the living earth,
Obey'd his mandate :-lord of all the rest,
Man more than all his hidden art confess'd,
Cringed to his face, consulted, and revered
His oracles,-detested him, and fear'd.
"Once by the river, in a waking dream, He stood to watch the ever-running stream, In which, reflected upward to his eyes, He giddily look'd down upon the skies, For thus he feign'd, in his ecstatic mood, To summon divination from the flood. His steady view a floating object cross'd; His eye pursued it till the sight was lost.An outcast infant in a fragile bark! The river whirl'd the willow-woven ark Down tow'rds the deep; the tide returning bore The little voyager unharm'd to shore: Him in his cradle-ship securely bound With swathing skins, at eve the goat-herd found. Nurst by that foster-sire, austere and rude, 'Midst rocks and glens, in savage solitude, Among the kids, the rescued foundling grew, Nutrition from whose shaggy dams he drew, Till baby-curls his broader temples crown'd, And torrid suns his flexile limbs embrown'd: Then as he sprang from green to florid age, And rose to giant-stature, stage by stage, He roam'd the valleys with his browsing flock, And leapt in joy of youth from rock to rock; Climb'd the sharp precipice's steepest breast, To seize the eagle brooding on her nest, And rent his way through matted woods, to tear The skulking panther from his hidden lair. A trodden serpent, horrible and vast, Sprang on the heedless rover as he pass'd; Limb lock'd o'er limb, with many a straitening fold Of orbs inextricably involved, he roll'd On earth in vengeance, broke the twisted toils, Strangled the hissing fiend, and wore the spoils.
To nerve the frame, and petrify the heart,
The wizard train'd his pupil, from a span,
To thrice the bulk and majesty of man.
His limbs were sinewy strength: commanding grace,
And dauntless spirit sparkled in his face;
His arm could pluck the lion from his prey,
And hold the horn'd rhinoceros at bay;
His feet o'er highest hills pursue the hind,
Or tire the ostrich buoyant on the wind.
"Yet 't was the stripling's chief delight to brave The river's wrath, and wrestle with the wave; When torrent rains had swoln the furious tide, Light on the foamy surge he loved to ride; When calm and clear the stream was wont to flow, Fearless he dived to search the caves below. His childhood's story, often told, had wrought Sublimest hopes in his aspiring thought. -Once on a cedar, from its mountain-throne Pluck'd by the tempest, forth he sail'd alone, And reach'd the gulf-with eye of eager fire, And flushing cheek, he watch'd the shores retire, Till sky and water wide around were spread; -Straight to the sun he thought his voyage led, With shouts of transport hail'd its setting light, And follow'd all the long and lonely night: But ere the morning-star expired, he found His stranded bark once more on earthly ground. Tears, wrung from secret shame, suffused his eyes When in the east he saw the sun arise; Pride quickly check'd them :-young ambition burn'd For bolder enterprise, as he return'd.
"Through snares and deaths pursuing fame and
He scorn'd his flock from that adventurous hour,
And, leagued with monsters of congenial birth,
Began to scourge and subjugate the earth.
Meanwhile the sons of Cain, who till'd the soil.
By noble arts had learn'd to lighten toil;
Wisely their scatter'd knowledge he combined;
Yet had an hundred years matured his mind,
Ere with the strength that laid the forest low,
And skill that made the iron furnace glow.
His genius launch'd the keel, and sway'd the helm
(His throne and sceptre on the wat'ry realm),
While from the tent of his expanded sail,
He eyed the heavens and flew before the gale,
The first of men whose courage knew to guide
The bounding vessel through the refluent tide.
Then swore the Giant, in his pride of soul,
To range the universe from pole to pole,
Rule the remotest nations with his nod,
To live a hero, and to die a god.
"This is the king that wars in Eden-now, Fulfill'd at length he deems his early vow; His foot hath overrun the world, his hand Smitten to dust the pride of every land: The Patriarchs last, beneath his impious rod, He dooms to perish or abjure their God. -O God of truth! rebuke the tyrant's rage, And save the remnant of thine heritage."
When Javan ceased, they stood upon the height Where first he rested on his lonely flight,
Whence to the sacred mountain far away,
The land of Eden in perspective lay.
'Twas noon;-they tarried there, till milder hours
Woke with light airs the breath of evening flowers.
Commands the song to rise in quenchless flame,
And light the world for ever with his fame."
Thus on a mountain's venerable head,
Where trees, coeval with creation, spread
Their massy-twisted branches, green and grey,
Mature below, their tops in dry decay,
A bard of Jubal's lineage proudly sung,
Then stay'd awhile the raptures of his tongue :
A shout of horrible applause, that rent
The Scene changes to a Mountain, on the Summit of The echoing hills and answering firmament, which, beneath the Shade of ancient Trees, the Burst from the Giants,-where in barbarous state, Giants are assembled round their King, A Minstrel Flush'd with new wine, around their king they sate: sings the Monarch's Praises, and describes the A chieftain each, who, on his brazen car, Destruction of the Remnant of the Force of his enemies, in an Assault, by Land and Water, on their Encampment, between the Forest on the eastern Plain of Eden and the River to the West. The Captive Patriarchs are presented before the King and his Chieftains.
"THERE is a living spirit in the Lyre,
A breath of music and a soul of fire;
It speaks a language, to the world unknown;
It speaks that language to the Bard alone;
While warbled symphonies entrance his ears,
That spirit's voice in every tone he hears :
"Tis his the mystic meaning to rehearse,
To utter oracles in glowing verse,
Heroic themes from age to age prolong,
And make the dead in nature live in song.
Though graven rocks the warrior's deeds proclaim,
And mountains, hewn to statues, wear his name;
Though, shrined in adamant, his relics lie
Beneath a pyramid, that scales the sky;
All that the hand hath fashion'd shall decay;
All that the eye admires shall pass away;
The mouldering rocks, the hero's hope shall fail,
Earthquakes shall heave the mountains to the vale,
The shrine of adamant betray its trust,
And the proud pyramid resolve to dust:
The Lyre alone immortal fame secures,
For Song alone through Nature's change endures;
Transfused like life, from breast to breast it glows,
From sire to son by sure succession flows,
Speeds its unceasing flight from clime to clime,
Outstripping Death upon the wings of Time.
Had led an host of meaner men to war;
And now from recent fight on Eden's plain,
Where fell their foes, in helpless conflict slain,
Victoriously return'd, beneath the trees
They rest from toil, carousing at their ease.
Adjacent, where the mountain's spacious breast
Open'd in airy grandeur to the west,
Huge piles of fragrant cedars, on the ground,
As altars blazed, while victims bled around,
To gods, whose worship vanish'd with the Flood
-Divinities of brass, and stone, and wood,
By man himself in his own image made;
The fond creator to the creature pray'd!
And he, who from the forest or the rock
Hew'd the rough mass, adored the shapen block!
Then seem'd his flocks ignoble in his eyes,
His choicest herds too mean for sacrifice,
He pour'd his brethren's blood upon the pyre,
And pass'd his sons to demons through the fire.
Exalted o'er the vassal chiefs, behold
Their sovereign, cast in Nature's mightiest mould;
Beneath an oak, whose woven boughs display'd
A verdant canopy of light and shade,
Throned on a rock the Giant-king appears,
In the full manhood of five hundred years;
His robe, the spoils of lions, by his might
Dragg'd from their dens, or slain in chase or fight;
His raven locks, unblanch'd by withering Time,
Amply dishevell'd o'er his brow sublime;
His dark eyes, flush'd with restless radiance, gleam
Like broken moonlight rippling on the stream.
Grandeur of soul, which nothing might appal,
And nothing satisfy if less than all,
Had stamp'd upon his air, his form, his face,
<< Soul of the Lyre! whose magic power can raise The character of calm and awful grace;
Inspiring visions of departed days,
Or, with the glimpses of mysterious rhyme,
Dawn on the dreams of unawaken'd Time;
Soul of the Lyre! instruct thy bard to sing
The latest triumph of the Giant-king,
Who sees this day his orb of glory fill'd:
-In what creative numbers shall I build,
With what exalted strains of music crown,
His everlasting pillar of renown?
Though, like the rainbow, by a wondrous birth,
He sprang to light, the joy of heaven and earth;
Though, like the rainbow, for he cannot die,-
His form shall pass unseen into the sky;
Say, shall the hero share the coward's lot,
Vanish from earth, ingloriously forgot?
No! the divinity that rules the Lyre,
And clothes these lips with eloquence of fire,
But direst cruelty, by guile represt,
Lurk'd in the dark volcano of his breast,
In silence brooding, like the secret power
That springs the earthquake at the midnight hour.
From Eden's summit, with obdurate pride,
Red from afar, the battle scene he eyed,
Where late he crush'd, with one remorseless blow,
The remnant of his last and noblest foe;
At hand he view'd the trophies of his toils,
Herds, flocks, and steeds, the world's collected spoils;
Below, his legions march'd in war array,
Unstain'd with blood in that unequal fray:
-An hundred tribes, whose sons their arms had borne,
Without contention, from the field at morn,
Their bands dividing, when the fight was won,
Darken'd the region towards the slanting sun,
Like clouds, whose shadows o'er the landscape sail, The envious minstrel smiled; then boldly ran -While to their camp, that fill'd the northern vale, His prelude o'er the chords, and thus began »
A waving sea of tents, immensely spread,
The trumpet summon'd, and the banners led.
With these a train of captives, sad and slow,
Moved to a death of shame, or life of woe,
A death on altars hateful to the skies,
Or life in chains, a slower sacrifice.
Fair smiled the face of Nature;—all serene,
And lovely, Evening tranquillized the scene;
The furies of the fight were gone to rest,
The cloudless sun grew broader down the west,
The hills beneath him melted from the sight,
Receding through the heaven of purple light;
Along the plain the maze of rivers roll'd,
And verdant shadows gleam'd in waves of gold.
Thus while the tyrant cast his haughty eye
O'er the broad landscape and incumbent sky,
His heart exulting whisper'd-" All is mine,"
And heard a voice from all things answer "Thine."
Such was the matchless chief, whose name of yore
Fill'd the wide world; his name is known no more:
O that for ever from the rolls of fame,
Like his, had perish'd every conqueror's name!
Then had mankind been spared, in after-times,
Their greatest sufferings and their greatest crimes.
The hero scourges not his age alone,
His curse to late posterity is known:
He slays his thousands with his living breath,
His tens of thousands by his fame in death.
Achilles quench'd not all his wrath on Greece,
Through Homer's song its miseries never cease;
Like Phoebus' shafts, the bright contagion brings
Plagues on the people for the feuds of kings.
"T was not in vain the son of Philip sigh'd
For worlds to conquer,-o'er the western tide,
His spirit, in the Spaniard's form, o'erthrew
Realms, that the Macedonian never knew.
The steel of Brutus struck not Cæsar dead;
Cæsar in other lands hath rear'd his head,
And fought, of friends and foes, on many a plain,
His millions, captured, fugitive, and slain;
Yet seldom suffer'd, where his country died,
A Roman vengeance for his parricide.
The sun was sunk; the sacrificial pyres
From smouldering ashes breathed their last blue fires;
The smiling star, that lights the world to rest,
Walk'd in the rosy gardens of the west,
""T was on the morn that faithless Javan fled,
To yonder plain the king of nations led
His countless hosts, and stretch'd their wide array
Along the woods, within whose shelter lay
The sons of Eden: '-these, with secret pride.
In ambush thus the invincible defied:
-Girt with the forest, wherefore should we fear?
The Giant's sword shall never reach us here:
Behind, the river rolls its deep defence;
The Giant's hand shall never pluck us hence.'
Vain boast of fools! who to that hand prepare
For their own lives the inevitable snare:
His legions smote the standards of the wood,
And with her prostrate strength controll'd the flood;
Lopt off their boughs, and jointed beam to beam,
The pines and oaks were launch'd upon the stream,
An hundred rafts.-Yet still within a zone
Of tangled coppices,-a waste, o'ergrown
With briers and thorns,-the dauntless victims lie,
Scorn to surrender, and prepare to die.
The second sun went down; the monarch's plan
Was perfected: the dire assault began.
"Marshall'd by twilight, his obedient bands
Engirt the wood, with torches in their hands;
The signal given, they shoot them through the air;
The blazing brands in rapid volleys glare,
Descending through the gloom with spangled light,
As if the stars were falling through the night.
Along the wither'd grass the wild-fire flew,
Higher and hotter with obstruction grew;
The green wood hiss'd; from crackling thickets broke
Light glancing flame, and heavy rolling smoke;
Till all the breadth of forest seem'd to rise
In raging conflagration to the skies.
Fresh o'er our heads the winds propitious blow,
But roll the fierce combustion on the foe.
Awhile they paused, of every hope bereft,
Choice of destruction all their refuge left:
If from the flames they fled, behind them lay
The river roaring to receive his prey;
If through the stream they sought the farther strand,
Our rafts were moor'd to meet them ere they land;
With triple death environ'd thus they stood,
Till nearer peril drove them to the flood.
Safe on a hill, where sweetest moonlight slept,
As o'er the changing scene my watch I kept,
I heard their shrieks of agony;
hear
Those shrieks still ring in my tormented ear;
I saw them leap the gulf with headlong fright;
O that mine eyes could now forget that sight!
They sank in multitude; but, prompt to save,
Our warriors snatch'd the stragglers from the wave,
Like Eve erewhile through Eden's blooming bowers,
A lovelier star amidst a heaven of flowers.
Now in the freshness of the falling shade,
Again the minstrel to the monarch play'd.
-"Where is the youth renown'd?—the youth whose And on the rafts a noble harvest bore
Was wont to make the listening camp rejoice,
When to his harp, in many a peerless strain,
He sang the wonders of the Giant's reign;
Oh where is Javan?"-Thus the bard renew'd
His lay, and with a rival's transport view'd
The cloud of sudden anger, that o'ercame
The tyrant's countenance, at Javan's name;
Javan, whose song was once his soul's delight,
Now doom'd a traitor recreant by his flight.
Of rescued heroes, captive, to the shore.
"One little troop their lessening ground maintain'd,
Till space to perish in alone remain'd;
Then with a shout that rent the echoing air,
More like the shout of victory than despair,
Wedged in a solid phalanx, man by man,
Right through the scorching wilderness they ran,
1 Vide Canto I. p. 23, and Canto III, p. B.
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