XXIII.

The rocks, waves, ramparts, Europe’s, Asia’s coast,

All throng’d! one theatre for kingly war!

A monarch, girt with his barbaric host,

Points o’er the beach his flashing scimitar!

Dark tribes are tossing javelins from afar,

Hands waving banners o’er each battlement,

Decks, with their serried guns, array’d to bar

The promised aid: but hark! a shout is sent

Up from the noble barks!—the Moslem line is rent!