Still as the lips that closed in death,

Each gazer's bosom held his breath:

But yet, afar, from man to man,

A cold electric[428] shiver ran, 480

As down the deadly blow descended

On him whose life and love thus ended;

And, with a hushing sound compressed,

A sigh shrunk back on every breast;

But no more thrilling noise rose there,[re]

Beyond the blow that to the block

Pierced through with forced and sullen shock,

Save one:—what cleaves the silent air

So madly shrill, so passing wild?

That, as a mother's o'er her child, 490

Done to death by sudden blow,

To the sky these accents go,

Like a soul's in endless woe.

Through Azo's palace-lattice driven,

That horrid voice ascends to heaven,

And every eye is turned thereon;

But sound and sight alike are gone!

It was a woman's shriek—and ne'er

In madlier accents rose despair;

And those who heard it, as it past, 500

In mercy wished it were the last.