The sound of mats[372] are heard along our track;30

Anon the torchlight dance shall fling its sheen

In flashing mazes o'er the Marly's[373] green;

And we too will be there; we too recall

The memory bright with many a festival,

Ere Fiji blew the shell of war, when foes

For the first time were wafted in canoes.[fg]

Alas! for them the flower of manhood bleeds;

Alas! for them our fields are rank with weeds:

Forgotten is the rapture, or unknown,[fh]