Plunder’d Palermo, seiz’d Sicily, sack’d the Lucanian coast,
And paused, and said, laughing, “Where next?”
Then there came to the Vandal a Ghost
From the Shadowy Land that lies hid and unknown in the Darkness Below.
And answered, “To Rome!”
Said the King to the Ghost, “And whose envoy art thou?
Whence com’st thou? and name me his name that hath sent thee: and say what is thine.”
“From far: and His name that hath sent me is God,” the Ghost answered, “and mine
Was Hannibal once, ere thou wast: and the name that I now have is Fate.
But arise, and be swift, and return. For God waits, and the moment is late.”