So near they came, the nearest stretched

To grasp the spoil he almost reached

When old Minotti's hand

Touched with the torch the train—

'Tis fired![401]

Spire, vaults, the shrine, the spoil, the slain,

The turbaned victors, the Christian band,

All that of living or dead remain,

Hurled on high with the shivered fane,

In one wild roar expired![402] 1020

The shattered town—the walls thrown down—

The waves a moment backward bent—

The hills that shake, although unrent,[qr]

As if an Earthquake passed—

The thousand shapeless things all driven

In cloud and flame athwart the heaven,

By that tremendous blast—

Proclaimed the desperate conflict o'er

On that too long afflicted shore:[403]

Up to the sky like rockets go 1030

All that mingled there below:

Many a tall and goodly man,

Scorched and shrivelled to a span,

When he fell to earth again

Like a cinder strewed the plain:

Down the ashes shower like rain;

Some fell in the gulf, which received the sprinkles

With a thousand circling wrinkles;

Some fell on the shore, but, far away,

Scattered o'er the isthmus lay; 1040

Christian or Moslem, which be they?

Let their mothers see and say![qs]

When in cradled rest they lay,

And each nursing mother smiled

On the sweet sleep of her child,

Little deemed she such a day

Would rend those tender limbs away.[404]

Not the matrons that them bore

Could discern their offspring more;[405]

That one moment left no trace 1050

More of human form or face

Save a scattered scalp or bone:

And down came blazing rafters, strown

Around, and many a falling stone,[qt]

Deeply dinted in the clay,

All blackened there and reeking lay.

All the living things that heard

The deadly earth-shock disappeared:

The wild birds flew; the wild dogs fled,

And howling left the unburied dead;[qu] [406] 1060

The camels from their keepers broke;

The distant steer forsook the yoke—

The nearer steed plunged o'er the plain,

And burst his girth, and tore his rein;

The bull-frog's note, from out the marsh,

Deep-mouthed arose, and doubly harsh;[407]

The wolves yelled on the caverned hill

Where Echo rolled in thunder still;[qv]

The jackal's troop, in gathered cry,[qw] [408]

Bayed from afar complainingly, 1070

With a mixed and mournful sound,[qx]

Like crying babe, and beaten hound:[409]

With sudden wing, and ruffled breast,

The eagle left his rocky nest,

And mounted nearer to the sun,

The clouds beneath him seemed so dun;

Their smoke assailed his startled beak,

And made him higher soar and shriek—

Thus was Corinth lost and won![410]