XV.

But ah! what shrilly cry doth now alarm

The sooty fowls that dozed upon the beam,

All sudden fluttering from the brandish'd arm,

And cackling chorus with the human scream;

Meanwhile, the scourge plies that unkindly seam,

In Phelim's brogues, which bares his naked skin,

Like traitor gap in warlike fort, I deem,

That falsely lets the fierce besieger in,