Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/185

CANTO II.] LXXVI.

Hereditary Bondsmen! know ye not

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?

By their right arms the conquest must be wrought?

Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? No!

True—they may lay your proud despoilers low,

But not for you will Freedom's Altars flame.

Shades of the Helots! triumph o'er your foe!

Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same;

Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thine years of shame.

LXXVII.

The city won for Allah from the Giaour

The Giaour from Othman's race again may wrest;

And the Serai's impenetrable tower

Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest;N35

Or Wahab's rebel brood who dared divest

The Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil,N36

May wind their path of blood along the West;

But ne'er will Freedom seek this fated soil,

But slave succeed to slave through years of endless toil.