Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/237

Rh And if they once may win the bridge,

What hope to save the town?"

Then out spake brave Horatius,

The Captain of the Gate:

"To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late;

And how can man die better

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of his gods,

"And for the tender mother

Who dandled him to rest,

And for the wife who nurses

His baby at her breast,

And for the holy maidens

Who feed the eternal flame,

To save them from false Sextus

That wrought the deed of shame?

"Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,

With all the speed ye may;

I, with two more to help me,

Will hold the foe in play.

In yon straight path a thousand

May well be stopped by three.

Now who will stand on either hand,

And keep the bridge with me?"

Then out spake Spurius Lartius—

A Ramnian proud was he—

"Lo, I will stand at thy right hand

And keep the bridge with thee."