Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/236

198 And plainly and more plainly,

Above the glimmering line,

Now might ye see the banners

Of twelve fair cities shine;

But the banner of proud Clusium

Was the highest of them all,

The terror of the Umbrian,

The terror of the Gaul.

Fast by the royal standard,

O'erlooking all the war,

Lars Porsena of Clusium

Sat in his ivory car.

By the right wheel rode Mamilius,

Prince of the Latian name,

And by the left false Sextus,

That wrought the deed of shame.

But when the face of Sextus

Was seen, among the foes,

A yell that rent the firmament

From all the town arose.

On the house-tops was no woman

But spat toward him and hissed,

No child but screamed out curses,

And shook its little fist.

But the Consul's brow was sad,

And the Consul's speech was low,

And darkly looked he at the wall,

And darkly at the foe.

"Their van will be upon us

Before the bridge goes down;