—Near
and more near the intrepid Beauty press’d,
Saw
through the driving smoke his dancing crest,
Heard
the exulting shout, “they run! they run!”
“Great
GOD!” she cried, “He’s safe! the
battle’s won!”
285 —A ball now hisses through the airy
tides,
(Some
Fury wing’d it, and some Demon guides!)
Parts
the fine locks, her graceful head that deck,
Wounds
her fair ear, and sinks into her neck;
The
red stream, issuing from her azure veins,
290 Dyes her white veil, her ivory bosom stains.—
—“Ah
me!” she cried, and, sinking on the ground,
Kiss’d
her dear babes, regardless of the wound;
“Oh,
cease not yet to beat, thou Vital Urn!
“Wait,
gushing Life, oh, wait my Love’s return!—
295 “Hoarse barks the wolf, the vulture screams
from far!
“The
angel, Pity, shuns the walks of war!——
“Oh,
spare ye War-hounds, spare their tender age!—
“On
me, on me,” she cried, “exhaust your rage!”—
Then
with weak arms her weeping babes caress’d,
300 And sighing bid them in her blood-stain’d
vest.
From
tent to tent the impatient warrior flies,
Fear
in his heart, and frenzy in his eyes;
Eliza’s
name along the camp he calls,
Eliza
echoes through the canvas walls;
305 Quick through the murmuring gloom his footsteps
tread,
O’er
groaning heaps, the dying and the dead,
Vault
o’er the plain, and in the tangled wood,
Lo!
dead Eliza weltering in her blood!—
—Soon
hears his listening son the welcome sounds,
310 With open arms and sparkling eyes he bounds:—
“Speak
low,” he cries, and gives his little hand,
“Eliza
sleeps upon the dew-cold sand;
“Poor
weeping Babe with bloody fingers press’d,
“And
tried with pouting lips her milkless breast;
315 “Alas! we both with cold and hunger quake—
“Why
do you weep?—Mama will soon awake.”
—“She’ll
wake no more!” the hopeless mourner cried
Upturn’d
his eyes, and clasp’d his hands, and sigh’d;
Stretch’d
on the ground awhile entranc’d he lay,
320 And press’d warm kisses on the lifeless
clay;
And
then unsprung with wild convulsive start,
And
all the Father kindled in his heart;
“Oh,
Heavens!” he cried, “my first rash vow
forgive!
“These
bind to earth, for these I pray to live!”—
325 Round his chill babes he wrapp’d his crimson
vest,
And
clasp’d them sobbing to his aching breast.
Two
Harlot-Nymphs, the fair CUSCUTAS, please
With
labour’d negligence, and studied ease;