The turbaned Race are poured in thickening swarms
Along the west; though driven from Aquitaine,
The Crescent glitters on the towers of Spain;
And soft Italia feels renewed alarms;
The scimitar, that yields not to the charms 5
Of ease, the narrow Bosphorus will disdain;
Nor long (that crossed) would Grecian hills detain
Their tents, and check the current of their arms.
Then blame not those who, by the mightiest lever
Known to the moral world, Imagination, 10
Upheave, so seems it, from her natural station
All Christendom:—they sweep along (was never
So huge a host!)[103]—to tear from the Unbeliever
The precious Tomb, their haven of salvation.
FOOTNOTES:
[103] Ten successive armies, amounting to nearly 950,000 men, took part in the first Crusade. "The most distant islands and savage countries," says William of Malmesbury, "were inspired with this ardent passion"—Ed.
XXXV
RICHARD I
Redoubted King, of courage leonine,
I mark thee, Richard! urgent to equip
Thy warlike person with the staff and scrip;
I watch thee sailing o'er the midland brine;
In conquered Cyprus see thy Bride decline 5
Her blushing cheek, love-vows[104] upon her lip,
And see love-emblems streaming from thy ship,
As thence she holds her way to Palestine.[105]
My Song, a fearless homager, would attend
Thy thundering battle-axe as it cleaves the press 10
Of war, but duty summons her away
To tell—how, finding in the rash distress
Of those Enthusiasts a subservient friend,
To[106] giddier heights hath clomb the Papal sway.
FOOTNOTES:
[104] 1827.
... Love's vow ... 1822.
[105] Richard I. (Cœur de Lion), one of the two leaders in the third Crusade, after conquering Cyprus—on his way to Palestine—while in that island married Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre.—Ed.