XVI.

Now, from the rock Tarpeian,
Could the wan burghers spy
The line of blazing villages
Red in the midnight sky.
The fathers of the city,

They sat all night and day,
For every hour some horseman came
With tidings of dismay.

XVII.

To eastward and to westward
Have spread the Tuscan bands,
Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecot,
In Crustumerium stands.
Verbenna down to Ostia

Hath wasted all the plain;
Astur hath stormed Janiculum,
And the stout guards are slain.

XVIII.

I wis, in all the senate

There was no heart so bold
But sore it ached, and fast it beat,
When that ill news was told.
Forthwith up rose the consul-
Up rose the fathers all;
In haste they girded up their gowns,
And hied them to the wall.

XIX.

They held a council, standing
Before the river-gate ;

Short time was there, ye well may guess,

For musing or debate.

Out spake the consul roundly:

"The bridge must straight go down;

For, since Janiculum is lost,

Nought else can save the town."

XX.

Just then a scout came flying,
All wild with haste and fear:
"To arms! to arms! sir consul-
Lars Porsena is here."

On the low hills to westward
The consul fixed his eye,
And saw the swarthy storm of dust
Rise fast along the sky.

XXI.

And nearer fast and nearer

Doth the red whirlwind come; And louder still, and still more loud, From underneath that rolling cloud, Is heard the trumpets' war-note proud, The trampling and the hum. And plainly and more plainly

Now through the gloom appears,

Far to left and far to right,

In broken gleams of dark-blue light,
The long array of helmets bright,
The long array of spears.

XXII.

And plainly and more plainly,
Above that glimmering line,
Now might ye see the banners
Of twelve fair cities shine;
But the banner of proud Clusium
Was highest of them all
The terror of the Umbrian,

The terror of the Gaul.

XXIII.

And plainly and more plainly

Now might the burghers know, By port and vest, by horse and crest, Each warlike Lucumo:

There Cilnius of Arretium

On his fleet roan was seen;

And Astur of the fourfold shield,
Girt with the brand none else may wield;
Tolumnius with the belt of gold,

And dark Verbenna from the hold
By reedy Thrasymene.

XXIV.

Fast by the royal standard,
O'erlooking all the war

Lars Porsena of Clusium
Sat in his ivory car,

By the right wheel rode Mamilius
Prince of the Latian name,

And by the left false Sextus,

That wrought the deed of shame.

XXV.

But when the face of Sextus
Was seen among the foes,
A yell that rent the firmament
From all the town arose.
On the housetops was no woman
But spat toward him and hissed,
No child but screamed out curses,
And shook its little fist.

XXVI.

But the consul's brow was sad,
And the consul's speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall,
And darkly at the foe:
"Their van will be upon us

Before the bridge goes down;

And if they once may win the bridge,
What hope to save the town?"

XXVII.

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The captain of the gate:
"To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.

For Romans in Rome's quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,-
In the brave days of old.

XXXII.

Then none was for a party.

Then all were for the state; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great; Then lands were fairly portioned, Then spoils were fairly sold; The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old.

XXXIII.

Now Roman is to Roman
More hateful than a foe,
And the tribunes beard the high,
And the fathers grind the low.

As we wax hot in faction,

In battle we wax cold; Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old.

XXXIV.

Now while the three were tightening
Their harness on their backs,
The consul was the foremost man
To take in hand an axe;
And fathers, mixed with commons,
Seized hatchet, bar, and crow,
And smote upon the planks above,
And loosed the props below.

XXXV.

Meanwhile the Tuscan army,
Right glorious to behold,
Came flashing back the noonday light,
Rank behind rank, like surges bright
Of a broad sea of gold.