Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/57



Red from his chambers came the morning sun
 * And frowned, dark Ganges, on thy fatal 'shore.

Journeying on high; but when the day was done
 * He set in smiles, to rise in blood no more.

Hark! heard ye not? the widow's wail is over;
 * No more the flames from impious pyres ascend.

See Mercy, now primeval peace restore.
 * While pagans glad the arch ethereal rend,

For India hails at last, her father and her friend.

Back to its cavern ebbs the tide of crime.
 * There fettered, locked, and powerless it sleeps;

And History bending o'er the page of time.
 * Where many a mournful record still she keeps,

The widowed Hindoo's fate no longer weeps;
 * The priestly tyrant's cruel charm is broken.

And to his den alarmed the monster creeps;
 * The charm that mars his mystic spell is broken.

O'er all the land 'tis spread: he trembles at the token.

Bentinck, be thine the everlasting meed!
 * The heart's full homage still is virtue's claim.

And 'tis the good man's ever honoured deed
 * Which gives an immortality to fame:

Transient and fierce, though dazzling is the flame
 * That glory lights upon the wastes of war:

Nations unborn shall venerate thy name,
 * A triumph than the conqueror's mightier far,

Thy memory shall be blessed as is the morning star.