As the wolves, that headlong go

On the stately buffalo,

Though with fiery eyes, and angry roar,

And hoofs that stamp, and horns that gore,

He tramples on earth, or tosses on high

The foremost, who rush on his strength but to die

Thus against the wall they went,

Thus the first were backward bent;[383] 730

Many a bosom, sheathed in brass,

Strewed the earth like broken glass,[qd]

Shivered by the shot, that tore

The ground whereon they moved no more:

Even as they fell, in files they lay,

Like the mower's grass at the close of day,[qe]

When his work is done on the levelled plain;

Such was the fall of the foremost slain.[384]