"Nor unresisted round her massy walls "Pitch'd they their camp. I need not tell Sir Knight "How oft and boldly on the invading host "We burst with fierce assault impetuous forth, "For many were the warrior Sons of Roan. "One gallant Citizen was famed o'er all "For daring hardihood præeminent, "Blanchard. He, gathering round his countrymen, "With his own courage kindling every breast, "Had not the patient enemy drawn round 66 top "In vain with fearful hearts along the Seine "We strain'd the eye, and every distant wave "Which in the sun-beam glitter'd, fondly thought "The white sail of supply. Alas! no more "The white sail rose upon our aching sight; "For guarded was the Seine, and that stern foe "Had made a league with Famine. How my heart "Sunk in me when at night I carried home "The scanty pittance of to-morrow's meal! "You know not, strangers! what it is to see "The asking eye of hunger! "Still we strove, Expecting aid; nor longer force to force, "Valour to valour in the fight opposed, "But to the exasperate patience of the foe, Desperate endurance. Tho' with Christian zeal "Ursino would have pour'd the balm of peace "Into our wounds, Ambition's ear, best pleased "With the war's clamour and the groan of Death, "Was deaf to prayer. Day after day fled on; "We heard no voice of comfort. From the walls "Could we behold the savage Irish Kernes, "Ruffians half-clothed, half-human, half-baptized, "Come with their spoil, mingling their hideous shouts "With moan of weary flocks, and piteous low "Of kine sore-laden, in the mirthful camp "Scattering abundance; while the loathliest food "We prized above all price; while in our streets "The dying groan of hunger, and the scream "Of famishing infants echoed,.. and we heard, "With the strange selfishness of misery, "We heard and heeded not. "Thou wouldst have deem'd "Roan must have fallen an easy sacrifice, "Young warrior, hadst thou seen our meagre limbs "And pale and shrunken cheeks, and hollow eyes; "Yet still we struggled nobly! Blanchard still 66 Spake of the savage fury of the foe, "Of Harfleur's wretched race cast on the world "Houseless and destitute, while that fierce King "Knelt at the altar, and with impious prayer "Gave God the glory, even while the blood "That he had shed was reeking up to Heaven. "He bade us think what mercy they had found "Who yielded on the plain of Agincourt, "In cold blood murder'd. Then his scanty food 66 Sharing with the most wretched, he would bid us "Bear with our miseries bravely. "Thus distress'd, "Lest all should perish thus, our chiefs decreed "Women and children, the infirm and old, "All who were useless in the work of war, "Should forth and take their fortune. Age, that makes "The joys and sorrows of the distant years "Like a half-remember'd dream, yet on my heart "The prayer of parting, even the pious priest "That merciless man. The wretched crowd pass'd on: "My wife..my children.. thro' the gates they pass'd, "Then the gates clos'd... Would I were in my grave "That I might lose remembrance! "What is man, "That he can hear the groan of wretchedness "And feel no fleshy pang! Why did the All-Good "Create these warrior scourges of mankind, "These who delight in slaughter? I did think "There was not on this earth a heart so hard "And know no pity. As the outcast train "Force back the miserable multitude. "They drove them to the walls, ... it was the depth "Of winter,... we had no relief to grant. "The aged ones groan'd to our foe in vain, "The mother pleaded for her dying child, "And they felt no remorse!" Starts from her seat, The mission'd Maid "The old and the infirm, |