4. For, from the utmost realms of earth came pouring _3820 The banded slaves whom every despot sent At that throned traitor's summons; like the roaring Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circumvent In the scorched pastures of the South; so bent The armies of the leagued Kings around _3825 Their files of steel and flame;--the continent Trembled, as with a zone of ruin bound, Beneath their feet, the sea shook with their Navies' sound. 5. From every nation of the earth they came, The multitude of moving heartless things, _3830 Whom slaves call men: obediently they came, Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings To the stall, red with blood; their many kings Led them, thus erring, from their native land; Tartar and Frank, and millions whom the wings _3835 Of Indian breezes lull, and many a band The Arctic Anarch sent, and Idumea's sand, 6. Fertile in prodigies and lies;--so there Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill. The desert savage ceased to grasp in fear _3840 His Asian shield and bow, when, at the will Of Europe's subtler son, the bolt would kill Some shepherd sitting on a rock secure; But smiles of wondering joy his face would fill, And savage sympathy: those slaves impure, _3845 Each one the other thus from ill to ill did lure. 7. For traitorously did that foul Tyrant robe His countenance in lies,--even at the hour When he was snatched from death, then o'er the globe, With secret signs from many a mountain-tower, _3850 With smoke by day, and fire by night, the power Of Kings and Priests, those dark conspirators, He called:--they knew his cause their own, and swore Like wolves and serpents to their mutual wars Strange truce, with many a rite which Earth and Heaven abhors. _3855 8. Myriads had come--millions were on their way; The Tyrant passed, surrounded by the steel Of hired assassins, through the public way, Choked with his country's dead:--his footsteps reel On the fresh blood--he smiles. 'Ay, now I feel _3860 I am a King in truth!' he said, and took His royal seat, and bade the torturing wheel Be brought, and fire, and pincers, and the hook, And scorpions, that his soul on its revenge might look. 9. 'But first, go slay the rebels--why return _3865 The victor bands?' he said, 'millions yet live, Of whom the weakest with one word might turn The scales of victory yet;--let none survive But those within the walls--each fifth shall give The expiation for his brethren here.-- _3870 Go forth, and waste and kill!'--'O king, forgive My speech,' a soldier answered--'but we fear The spirits of the night, and morn is drawing near;