Or, at Thermopylæ’s dread pass,
The band led by Leonidas
Laid down their lives, a holocaust,
To stay the foe’s invading host:
Not Rome when fierce, barbaric bands
O’erran her city, towns and lands;
Or at Cannæ or Thrasymene,
Where thousands of her sons were slain;
Not Winkleried or William Tell
Who fighting for their country fell;