Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/75

CANTO I.] For chiefs like ours in vain may laurels bloom!

Woe to the conquering, not the conquered host,

Since baffled Triumph droops on Lusitania's coast.

XXVI.

And ever since that martial Synod met,

Britannia sickens, Cintra! at thy name;

And folks in office at the mention fret,

And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame.

How will Posterity the deed proclaim!

Will not our own and fellow-nations sneer,

To view these champions cheated of their fame,

By foes in fight o'erthrown, yet victors here,

Where Scorn her finger points through many a coming year?