[From GLEASON’S pictorial drawing Room companion.]

A scrap of Roman history.

By an unknown Poet.

    In the olden days of Roman
        Grandeur, glory, wealth, and pride;
    Once there came a might legion
    From a vast and far-off region
        And this Roman power defied. 
    Naught could stay their devastations
        In the lands through which they came;
    All the weeping supplications
    Of the terror-stricken nations
        Could not quench these Vandals’ flame. 
    Ah! most cruel were the invaders,
        Cruel their chastizing rods! 
    For their hearts were stone-like hardened,
    These remorseless and unpardoned
        Foes of men and all the gods. 
    And at last they came with boastings
        To the gods’ and learning’s home;
    Came with boasting, loud and merry,
    Came, at last, unto the very
        Walls of proud, imperial Rome. 
    Ah! why did they not, in mercy,
        Spare the “Mistress of the World!”
    Or, why did they not, when power
    Sat on Roman wall and tower,
        Come, and bid their darts be hurled. 
    For the Romans’ strength was broken. 
        Gone, like light from darkness, now;
    Now, when most that strength was need,
    Strength was not;—­there
        Weakness worse than Venla’s vow. 
    Bearing all the outward semblance
        Of a firm and mighty hold,
    Rome was inwardly as feeble
    As a cemeteried people
        Changed into corruption’s mould. 
    Ease, corruption, strife, dissension,
        Gaiety, licentious mirth,
    Luxury;—­O, bane of mortals! 
    All had sapped the very portals
        Of this mightiest queen of earth. 
    Therefore, when these hordes of robbers
        Swarmed around the Roman’s way,
    Scarcely shadow of resistance
    Met them near, or in the distance,
        And they found an easy prey. 
    Vandals, Alans, Allemanni,
        Longobardi, Avars, Moors,
    Goths, Suevi, Huns, Bulgarians,
    Overwhelming, rude barbarians
        Conquered Rome with deafening roars. 
    Desecrated, fired and plundered,
        Worse than vessel tempest-tost. 
    Rome was by her dissipations
    Blotted from the list of nations;
        Rome was lost!—­forever lost!

*** End of the project gutenberg EBOOK, the Circassian slave; or, the sultan’s favorite:  A story of Constantinople and the Caucasus ***

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