Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/69



In tangled depths the jungles spread
 * Around the solitary scene,

The lurking panther's sullen tread
 * Marks the wild paths of the ravine;

Here too the fierce hyena prowls.
 * Haunting the dark jheel's broad lagoon;

And here, at eve, the wolf-cub howls,
 * And famished jackals bay the moon.

A crumbling mosque—a ruined fort—
 * Hastening alike to swift decay,

Where owls and vampire bats resort.
 * And vultures hide them from the day,

Alone remain to tell the tale
 * Of Moslem power, and Moslem pride,

When shouts of conquest filled the gale
 * And swords in native blood were dyed.

They sleep—the slayer and the slain—
 * A lowly grave the victor shares

With the weak slave who wore the chain
 * None save a craven spirit wears.

Yet had the deeds which they have done
 * Lived in the poet's deathless song,

These nameless sepoys would have won
 * All that to valour's hopes belong