In mournful consultation, long debate—
Not more perplexing doubts her chiefs appal
When some proud city verges to her fall,
While ruin glares around, and pale affright
Convenes her councils in the dead of night.
No blazoned trophies o’er their concave spread,
Nor storied pillars raised aloft their head:
But here the queen of shade around them threw
Her dragon wing, disastrous to the view!
Dire was the scene with whirlwind, hail, and shower;