134 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



Come, arouse thee up, my gallant horse, and bear thy rider on ! 

 The comrade thou, and the friend I trow, of the dweller on the Don : 

 Pillage and death have spread their wings ; 'tis the hour to hie thee forth, 

 And with thy hoofs an echo wake to the trumpets of the North. 

 Nor gems, nor gold do men behold upon thy saddle tree ; 

 But earth affords the wealth of lords for thy master and for thee. 

 Then proudly neigh, my charger grey ! Oh ! thy chest is broad and 



ample. 

 And thy hoofs shall prance o'er the fields of France, and the pride of 



her heroes trample. 



Europe is weak, she hath grown old, her bulwarks are laid low ; 

 She is loath to hear the voice of war, she shrinketh from a foe : 

 Come, in our turn, let us sojourn in her goodly haunts of joy, 

 In the pillared porch to wave the torch, and her palaces destroy : 

 Proud as when first thou slak'st thy thirst in the flow of conquered 



Seine, 



Ay, thou shalt lave within that wave thy blood-red flank again : 

 Then proudly neigh, &c. 



Kings are beleaguered on their thrones by their own vassal crew, 

 And in their den quake noblemen, and priests are bearded too. 

 And loud they yelp for the Cossack's help to keep their bondsmen down, 

 And they think it meet, while they kiss our feet, to wear a tyrant's crown. 

 The sceptre now to my lance shall bow, and the crosier and the cross, 

 All shall bend alike, when I lift my pike, and aloft that sceptre toss. 

 Then proudly neigh, &c. 



In a night of storm, I have seen a form, and the figure was a giant, 

 And his eye was bent on the Cossack's tent, and his look was all defiant 

 Kingly his crest, and toward the West with his battleaxe he pointed ; 

 And the form I saw was ATTILA of this earth the scourge anointed : 

 From the Cossack's camp let the horseman's tramp the coming crash 



announce ; 



Let the vulture whet its beak sharp set on the carrion field to pounce ! 

 And fiercely neigh, &c. 



