And now, no longer letted{3} of his prey, He leaps up at it with enraged desire, O'erlooks the neighbors with a wide survey, And nods at every house his threatening fire. The ghosts of traitors from the Bridge{4} descend, With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice; About the fire into a dance they bend, And sing their sabbath notes with feeble voice. Our guardian angel saw them where they sate, Above the palace of our slumbering King; He sighed, abandoning his charge to Fate, And drooping oft look'd back upon the wing. At length the crackling noise and dreadful blaze Call'd up some waking lover to the sight; And long it was ere he the rest could raise, Whose heavy eyelids yet were full of night. The next to danger, hot pursued by fate, Half-clothed, half-naked, hastily retire; And frighted mothers strike their breasts too late For helpless infants left amidst the fire. Their cries soon waken all the dwellers near; Now murmuring noises rise in every street; The more remote run stumbling with their fear, And in the dark men justle as they meet. So weary bees in little cells repose; But if night-robbers lift the well-stored hive, An humming through their waxen city grows, And out upon each other's wings they drive.{5} Now streets grow throng'd and busy as by day; Some run for buckets to the hallow'd quire; Some cut the pipes, and some the engines play, And some more bold mount ladders to the fire. In vain; for from the east a Belgian wind His hostile breath through the dry rafters sent; The flames impell'd soon left their foes behind, And forward with a wanton fury went. A key{6} of fire ran all along the shore, And lighten'd all the river with a blaze; The waken'd tides began again to roar, And wondering fish in shining waters gaze. Old Father Thames rais'd up his reverend head, But fear'd the fate of Simois{7} would return; Deep in his ooze he sought his sedgy bed, And shrank his waters back into his urn. The fire meantime walks in a broader gross;{8} To either hand his wings he opens wide; He wades the streets, and straight he reaches cross, And plays his longing flames on the other side. At first they warm, then scorch, and then they take; Now with long necks from side to side they feed; At length, grown strong, their mother-fire forsake, And a new colony of flames succeed. To every nobler portion of the town The curling billows roll their restless tide; In parties now they straggle up and down, As armies unopposed for prey divide.