Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/305

BOOK X.] Forgot that such a sound was ever heard

As Liberty upon earth: yet all beneath

Her innocent authority was wrought,

Nor could have been, without her blessed name.

The illustrious wife of Roland, in the hour

Of her composure, felt that agony,

And gave it vent in her last words. O Friend!

It was a lamentable time for man,

Whether a hope had e'er been his or not;

A woful time for them whose hopes survived

The shock; most woful for those few who still

Were flattered, and had trust in human kind:

They had the deepest feeling of the grief.

Meanwhile the Invaders fared as they deserved:

The Herculean Commonwealth had put forth her arms,

And throttled with an infant godhead's might

The snakes about her cradle; that was well,

And as it should be; yet no cure for them

Whose souls were sick with pain of what would be

Hereafter brought in charge against mankind.

Most melancholy at that time, O Friend!

Were my day-thoughts,—my nights were miserable;

Through months, through years, long after the last beat

Of those atrocities, the hour of sleep

To me came rarely charged with natural gifts,