"At mouth of the portals seven Above our abodes he hover'd With lances that yawn'd for carnage; But vanish'd, afore his chaps With slaughter of Thebes were glutted; Afore the flicker of pitchy flame Might to the crown of turrets climb. So fierce the rattle of war around Was pour'd on his rear by the serpent-foe Hard match'd in deadly encounter. For Jove the over-vaunting tongue Supremely hates. Their full fed stream Of gold, of clatter, and of pride He saw, and smote with brandish'd flame Him, who at summit of his goal Would raise the peal of Conquest. _2nd Strophe._ "Foil'd in his frantic rush, Though still with blasts of hate against us raving, Down dropt he, torch and all, And heavy struck the Earth, who upward spurn'd him. Such auspice of the war To us was fair; and elsewhere new successes Befel, whereon the right Great Ares routing wheel'd the chariot-battle. For, posted at the seven gates, Equals to equals, seven chiefs To trophy-bearing Jupiter Payments of solid brass bequeath'd. Save that the gloomy-hearted twain, Sprung from one mother and one sire, Planted with adverse dint the spear And earn'd a fate in common. _2nd Antistrophe_ "But now, since Victory Mighty of name at length is come, delighted In car-borne Thebè's joy; Henceforth forget we battle's past annoyance. But through the livelong night Let us in sacred band approach the temples, And Bacchus to the dance-- The god who shakes the soil of Thebes--be leader. "But hither Creon, lo! proceeds, Son of Menoekeus, newly rais'd The sceptre of this land to sway. Now at new tokens of the gods, Methinks, some sage device he plies. Therefore to special parliament Hath he by general summons fetch'd This meeting of the elders." The next letter largely concerns Persia. And it is necessary to remember that, in the early part of the nineteenth century, she began, at the suggestion of France, a most unfortunate war (as regards herself) with Russia. In 1826 there was another war, and this cost Persia all the rest of her possessions in Armenia. The taxation of the people, which the rulers enforced to enable them to pay the expenses of the war, caused the former to rise in insurrection in 1829. The death of the Crown Prince in 1833 seemed the crowning blow to the fortunes of Persia, for he had been the only man who had seriously tried to raise his country from the depths to which she had fallen.