Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/245



I.

after dread Pultowa's day,

When Fortune left the royal Swede—

Around a slaughtered army lay,

No more to combat and to bleed.

The power and glory of the war,

Faithless as their vain votaries, men,

Had passed to the triumphant Czar,

And Moscow's walls were safe again—

Until a day more dark and drear,

And a more memorable year,

Should give to slaughter and to shame

A mightier host and haughtier name;

A greater wreck, a deeper fall,

A shock to one—a thunderbolt to all.

II.

Such was the hazard of the die;

The wounded Charles was taught to fly