With him, aiding heart and hand, Whence issued late the fated ball That half avenged the city's fall, 865 870 For narrow the way that led to the spot 880 And the foremost, if fearful, may vainly try 885 They die; but ere their eyes could close Avengers o'er their bodies rose; Fresh and furious, fast they fill The ranks unthinned, though slaughtered still; And faint the weary Christians wax 890 Before the still renewed attacks: And now the Othmans gain the gate; Still resists its iron weight, And still, all deadly aimed and hot, From every crevice comes the shot; 895 From every shattered window pour The volleys of the sulphurous shower: But the portal wavering grows and weak And placed upon that holy shrine To fix our thoughts on things divine, To heaven, as if to waft it there. Still she smiled; even now she smiles, And made the sign of a cross with a sigh, Then seized a torch which blazed thereby; XXXI. 910 915 Were smeared, and slippery-stained, and strown With broken swords, and helms o'erthrown: E There were dead above, and the dead below You might see them piled in sable state, 930 In masses by the fleshless dead: Her sulphurous treasures, thickly spread Here, throughout the siege, had been To these a late formed train now led, 935 Against the foe's o'erwhelming force. 940 XXXII. The foe came on, and few remain To strive, and those must strive in vain : For lack of further lives, to slake The thirst of vengeance now awake, With barbarous blows they gash the dead, 945 And lop the already lifeless head, And fell the statues from their niche, Converted by Christ to his blood so divine, Which his worshippers drank at the break of day, To shrive their souls ere they joined in the fray. 960 Still a few drops within it lay; And round the sacred table glow Twelve lofty lamps, in splendid row, From the purest metal cast; A spoil-the richest, and the last: 965 XXXIII. So near they came, the nearest stretched Το grasp the spoil he almost reached, When old Minotti's hand Touched with the torch the train "Tis fired! 970 |