Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/86

 "All that day raged the war they waged, And again dumb night held reign, Save that ever upspread from the dark death-bed A miles-wide pant of pain.

"Hard had striven brave Ney, the true Bertrand, Victor, and Augereau, Bold Poniatowski, and Lauriston, To stay their overthrow;

"But, as in the dream of one sick to death There comes a narrowing room That pens him, body and limbs and breath, To wait a hideous doom,

"So to Napoleon, in the hush That held the town and towers Through these dire nights, a creeping crush Seemned inborne with the hours.