Page:Carducci - Poems of Italy.djvu/39

 While, midst dark tufts of savage plants, unstirred By any breathing of benignant airs, Huitzilopotli in his pyramid Sits keeping watch.

Out from the god are darting livid flames Into the tropic night; he scents your blood, And with his gaze o'ersweeps the spreading main, Howling, "Oh come!

"Long have I waited; the ferocious whites Destroyed my kingdom, broke my temples down, Come, self-devoted victim, nephew thou                               Of the Fifth Charles.

"I wanted not your forebears of ill fame, Rotten with vice, consumed with royal madness; For you I waited, you I pluck, reborn                               Hapsburgian flower.

“And to Guatimozino's mighty soul That reigns 'neath the pavilion of the sun, I send you, Maximilian, that are strong, Beautiful, pure!"  33