1.

LARS PORSENA of Clusium

By the Nine Gods he swore That the great house of Tarquin Should suffer wrong no more. By the Nine Gods he swore it,

And named a trysting day, And bade his messengers ride forth, East and west and south and north, To summon his array.

2.

East and west and south and north
The messengers ride fast,
And tower and town and cottage
Have heard the trumpet's blast.
Shame on the false Etruscan

Who lingers in his home,
When Porsena of Clusium
Is on the march for Rome.

3.

The horsemen and the footmen
Are pouring in amain
From many a stately market-place,
From many a fruitful plain;
From many a lonely hamlet,

Which, hid by beech and pine,

Like an eagle's nest hangs on the crest Of purple Apennine;

4.

From lordly Volaterræ,

Where scowls the far-famed hold Piled by the hands of giants For god-like kings of old; From seagirt Populonia, Whose sentinels descry Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops Fringing the southern sky;

5.

From the proud mart of Pisa,
Queen of the western waves,
Where ride Massilia's triremes
Heavy with fair-haired slaves;
From where sweet Clanis wanders
Through corn, and vines, and flowers;
From where Cortona lifts to heaven
Her diadem of towers.

6.

Tall are the oaks whose acorns

Drop in dark Auser's rill;

Fat are the stags that champ the boughs

Of the Ciminian hill;

Beyond all streams Clitumnus

Is to the herdsman dear;

Best of all pools the fowler loves
The great Volsinian mere.

7.

But now no stroke of woodman Is heard by Auser's rill,

No hunter tracks the stag's green path

Up the Ciminian hill;

Unwatched along Clitumnus

Grazes the milk-white steer; Unharmed the water-fowl may dip In the Volsinian mere.

8.

The harvests of Arretium

This year old men shall reap;
This year young boys in Umbro
Shall plunge the struggling sheep;
And in the vats of Luna,

This year, the must shall foam Round the white feet of laughing girls Whose sires have marched to Rome.

9.

There be thirty chosen prophets,
The wisest of the land,
Who alway by Lars Porsena
Both morn and evening stand:
Evening and morn the Thirty

Have turned the verses o'er, Traced from the right on linen white By mighty seers of yore.

10.

And with one voice the Thirty

Have their glad answer given: "Go forth, go forth, Lars Porsena, Go forth, beloved of Heaven;

Go, and return in glory

To Clusium's royal dome, And hang round Nurscia's altars The golden shields of Rome."

11.

And now hath every city

Sent up her tale of men: The foot are fourscore thousand, The horse are thousands ten. Before the gates of Sutrium

Is met the great array, A proud man was Lars Porsena Upon the trysting day.

12.

For all the Etruscan armies
Were ranged beneath his eye,
And many a banished Roman,
And many a stout ally;
And with a mighty following
To join the muster came
The Tusculan Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name.

13.

But by the yellow Tiber

Was tumult and affright: From all the spacious champaign To Rome men took their flight. A mile around the city,

The throng stopped up the ways; 2 Z

A fearful sight it was to see
Through two long nights and days.

14.

For aged folk on crutches,

And women great with child, And mothers sobbing over babes That clung to them and smiled, And sick men borne in litters

High on the necks of slaves, And troops of sun-burned husbandmen With reaping-hooks and staves,

15.

And droves of mules and asses

Laden with skins of wine,

And endless flocks of goats and sheep,
And endless herds of kine,
And endless trains of wagons

That creaked beneath their weight Of corn-sacks and of household goods, Choked every roaring gate.

16.

Now, from the rock Tarpeian,
Could the wan burghers spy

The line of blazing villages
Red in the midnight sky.
The Fathers of the City,

'They sat all night and day,

For every hour some horseman came With tidings of dismay.

17.

To eastward and to westward

Have spread the Tuscan bands; Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecote, In Crustumerium stands. Verbenna down to Ostia

Hath wasted all the plain; Astur hath stormed Janiculum, And the stout guards are slain. 18.

I wis, in all the Senate,

There was no heart so bold,
But sore it ached, and fast it beat,
When that ill news was told.
Forthwith up rose the Consul,
Up rose the Fathers all;

In haste they girded up their gowns,
And hied them to the wall.

19.

They held a council standing
Before the River-gate;

Short time was there, ye well may guess,
For musing or debate.

Out spoke the Consul roundly:

"The bridge must straight go down; For, since Janiculum is lost, Naught else can gave the town."

20.

Just then a scout came flying,

All wild with haste and fear: "To arms! to arms! Sir Consul; Lars Porsena is here."

On the low hills to westward

The Consul fixed his eye, And saw the swarthy storm of dust Bise fast along the sky.

"To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods,

28.

"And for the tender mother
Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses
His baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens

Who feed the eternal flame,
To save them from false Sextus
That wrought the deed of shame ?
29.

"Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,

With all the speed ye may; I, with two more to help me,

Will hold the foe in play.

In yon strait path a thousand

May well be stopped by three. Now, who will stand on either hand, And keep the bridge with me?" 30.

Then out spake Spurius Lartius, A Ramnian proud was he: "Lo, I will stand on thy right hand, And keep the bridge with thee." And out spake strong Herminius, Of Titian blood was he: "I will abide on thy left side, And keep the bridge with thee." 31.

“Horatius,” quoth the Consul,

"As thou sayest, so let it be." And straight against that great array Forth went the dauntless Three. For Romans in Rome's quarrel

Spared neither land nor gold, Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, In the brave days of old.

32.

Then none was for a party;

Then all were for the state; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great: Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold: The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old.

33.

Now Roman is to Roman

More hateful than a foe,

And the Tribunes beard the high, And the Fathers grind the low. As we wax hot in faction,

In battle we wax cold; Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old.

34.

Now, while the Three were tightening
Their harness on their backs,
The Consul was the foremost man
To take in hand an axe;

From Ostia's walls the crowd shail mark
The track of thy destroying bark.
No more Campania's hinds shall fly
To woods and caverns when they spy
Thy thrice accursed sail."

41.

But now no sound of laughter
Was heard amongst the foes.
A wild and wrathful clamour

From all the vanguard rose.
Six spears' lengths from the entrance
Halted that mighty mass,

And for a space no man came forth To win the narrow pass.

42.

But hark! the cry is Astur:
And lo! the ranks divide;
And the great Lord of Luna

Comes with his stately stride.
Upon his ample shoulders

Clangs loud the fourfold shield,

And in his hand he shakes the brand Which none but he can wield.

43.

He smiled on those bold Romans
i A smile serene and high;
He eyed the flinching Tuscans,

And scorn was in his eye.
Quoth he, "The she-wolf's litter
Stand savagely at bay:
But will ye dare to follow,
If Astur clears the way?"
44.

Then, whirling up his broadsword
With both hands to the height,

He rushed against Horatius,

And smote with all his might. With shield and blade Horatius

Right deftly turned the blow.

The blow, though turned, came yet too nigh; It missed his helm, but gashed his thigh: The Tuscans raised a joyful cry

To see the red blood flow.

45.

He reeled, and on Herminius

He leaned one breathing-space;

Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds,
Sprang right at Astur's face.

Through teeth, and skull, and helmet,
So fierce a thrust he sped,

The good sword stood a hand-breadth out
Behind the Tuscan's head.

46.

And the great Lord of Luna
Fell at that deadly stroke,
A falls on Mount Alvernus
A thunder-smitten oak.
Far o'er the crashing forest

The giant arms lie spread;

And the pale augurs, muttering low, Gaze on the blasted head.

47.

On Astur's throat Horatius

Right firmly ussed his heel,

54.

Back darted Spurius Lartius;
Herminius darted back:

Aud, as they passed, beneath their feet
They felt the timbers crack.
But when they turned their faces,
And on the farther shore
Saw brave Horatius stand alone,

They would have crossed once more.

55.

But with a crash like thunder

Fell every loosened beam, And, like a dam, the mighty wreck Lay right athwart the stream: And a long shout of triumph

Rose from the walls of Rome, As to the highest turret-tops Was splashed the yellow foam.

56.

And like a horse unbroken

When first he feels the rein, The furious river struggled hard, And tossed his tawny mane; And burst the curb, and bounded, Rejoicing to be free;

And whirling down, in fierce career, Battlement, and plank, and pier, Rushed headlong to the sea.

57.

Alone stood brave Horatius,
But constant still in mind;
Thrice thirty thousand foes before,

And the broad flood behind. Down with him!" cried false Sextus, With a smile on his pale face. "Now yield thee," cried Lars Porsena, "Now yield thee to our grace."

58.

Round turned he, as not deigning Those craven ranks to see; Naught spake he to Lars Porsena, To Sextus naught spake he; But he saw on Palatinus

The white porch of his home; And he spake to the noble river That rolls by the towers of Rome.

59.

"Oh, Tiber! father Tiber!

To whom the Romans pray,
A Roman's life, a Roman's arms,
Take thou in charge this day!"
So he spake, and speaking sheathed
The good sword by his side,
And, with his harness on his back,
Plunged headlong in the tide.
60.

No sound of joy or sorrow

Was heard from either bank;

But friends and foes in dumb surprise,
With parted lips and straining eyes,
Stood gazing where he sank;
And when above the surges

They saw his crest appear,

All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, And even the ranks of Tuscany

Could scarce forbear to cheer.

VOL. IV.-69