But O! when history with frigid eye Shall write the lengthened list of deeds gone by, And deal with justice, passionless but true, The meed deserved the living never knew, Forbid it, Heaven! her voice divine should stay The tide of praise that swells his name to-day. Tell how, when victory had wreathed his arms, And peace at length replaced war's dread alarms, (Such peace is theirs who can resist no more) When captive led from France's vanquished shore A conquered monarch graced the victor's car, The splendid trophy of the finished war. Say how, eclipsed in an inferior's guise, He scorned to feed with show the people's eyes; {234} And spurning Roman conqueror's gaudy pride, Rode, humble, by the French usurper's side. Such deed as this shall live to mock decay When time has borne war's fading wreaths away. The golden corn shall wave on Cressy's plain, The thrush shall sing in Poitier's woods again; The rosemaries upon Najarra's hill Shall perfume Najarilla's noiseless rill; The fields of France shall bloom in verdant pride, Unstained by ruthless conquest's crimson tide; The summer roses bloom in far Castile-- While, levelled by the dart we all must feel, The mortal victor lies--a wreck of clay, Once brilliant and as perishing as they. There mark the armour that in life he wore Hangs o'er his dreamless head! O never more Shall coat so princely fence so meet a heart! And still, as if demanding ne'er to part, There yet the leopards in their sanguine shield Alternate with the lilies' heavenly field. One step aside, and blazing through the gloom, The pinnacles that deck the martyr's[3] tomb Rise high and glittering o'er the golden urn; And there for aye the dying tapers burn, As if they cried to men in protest high That soon their earthly honours all must die; But that upon the Christian's sainted shade Alone is bound a wreath that cannot fade. O! ye who lie together, levelled here, In life so sundered and in death so near-- He who has shed men's blood to win a throne, And he who for Religion shed his own; What thoughts unnumbered on the rapid mind Arise, with mingled grief and awe combined!