Ah! cruel Eastern law! had kings a power But equal to their wild tyrannick will, To rob us of the sun’s all-cheering ray, Were less severe. The vulgar close the march, Slaves and artificers; and Delhi mourns Her empty and depopulated streets. Now, at the camp arrived, with stern review, Through groves of spears, from file to file, he darts His sharp experienced eye; their order marks, Each in his station rang’d, exact and firm, Till in the boundless line his sight is lost. Not greater multitudes in arms appear’d, On these extended plains, when Ammon’s son With mighty Porus in dread battle join’d, The vassal world the prize. Nor was that host More numerous of old, which the great king Pour’d out on Greece, from all the unpeopled East; That bridged the Hellespont from shore to shore, And drank the rivers dry. Mean while, in troops, The busy hunter-train mark out the ground, A wide circumference; full many a league In compass round; woods, rivers, hills, and plains, Large provinces; enough to gratify Ambition’s highest aim, could reason bound Man’s erring will. Now sit, in close divan, [Sidenote: BOOK II THE CHASE v. 363-387.] The mighty chiefs of this prodigious host. He, from the throne, high-eminent presides; Gives out his mandates proud, laws of the chase, From ancient records drawn. With reverence low, And prostrate at his feet, the chiefs receive His irreversible decrees, from which To vary, is to die. Then, his brave bands Each to his station leads, encamping round, Till the wide circle is completely form’d. Where decent order reigns: what these command, Those execute with speed, and punctual care, In all the strictest discipline of war; As if some watchful foe, with bold insult, Hung lowering o’er the camp. The high resolve, That flies on wings, through all the encircling line, Each motion steers, and animates the whole. So, by the sun’s attractive power controll’d, The planets in their spheres roll round his orb; On all he shines, and rules the great machine. Ere yet the morn dispels the fleeting mists, The signal given, by the loud trumpet’s voice, Now high in air the imperial standard waves, Emblazon’d rich with gold, and glittering gems; And, like a sheet of fire, through the dun gloom Streaming meteorous. The soldiers’ shouts, [Sidenote: BOOK II THE CHASE v. 388-412.]