Page:The poetical works of Thomas Campbell.djvu/270

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They saw a late bombarded town,Its streets still warm with blood ran down;Still smoked each burning rafter;And hideously, 'midst rape and sack,The murderer's laughter answered backHis prey's convulsive laughter.
They saw the captive eye the dead,With envy of his gory bed,—Death's quick reward of bravery:They heard the clank of chains, and thenSaw thirty thousand bleeding menDragged manacled to slavery.
"Fie! fie!" the younger heavenly sparkExclaimed:—"we must have missed our mark,And entered hell's own portals:Earth can't be stained with crimes so black;Nay, sure, we've got among a packOf fiends, and not of mortals."
"No," said the elder; "no such thing:Fiends are not fools enough to wringThe necks of one another:—They know their interests too well:Men fight; but every devil in hellLives friendly with his brother.
And I could point you out some fellows,On this ill-fated planet Tellus,In royal power that revel;Who, at the opening of the bookOf judgment, may have cause to lookWith envy at the devil."
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