Julia Alpinula With The Captive of Stamboul and Other Poems. By J. H. Wiffen |
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 | Julia Alpinula |  |
III.
Thus is there beauty still upon thy cheek,Pride of the modern Goth, and elder Greek,
Queen of the Orient! Thou, whom Constantine
Crowned, in a bridal hour, almost divine,
To keep perpetual Glory's golden keys;
All earth thy dower, thy ministers all seas.
Though thy fair halls a tyrant makes his home,—
And the Seraglio shows its burnished dome,
Though the high Mosque a sainted sod profane,
Though bearded Moslems shame Sophia's fane,
Thou hast thy beautiful dust,—urns which enfold
The ashes of thy demigods of old;—
The same wild path of waves too, which has worn
And to the Crescent shaped thy Golden Horn,
That path o'er which Minerva's Xenophon,
From red Cunaxa called his heroes on;
The baffled Persian barred his way in vain,
And idly round him shook his empty chain;
In all, through all, he mocked the' insidious foe,
The Median sling and the barbaric bow;
Chill, faint with famine, bleeding, wasted, wet,
Firm, though betrayed, and conquering, though beset;
Is yon the heaving of the dark blue sea?
The shout of happy thousands rends the air:
“The sea! the sea!” and all is safety there.
The account which Xenophon gives in his history of the celebrated retreat of the Ten Thousand, of the event alluded to in the text, is one of the most interesting passages in that interesting work; one, which, after the long series of dangers to which his daring band had been exposed, awakens in the mind of the reader no common sympathy: we participate in all the joy of such a discovery. “The fifth day they arrived at the high mountain called Theches. As soon as the vanguard had ascended the mountain, and beheld the sea, they raised a mighty shout, which when Xenophon and those in the rear heard, they concluded that some other enemies were attacking them in front, for the people belonging to the country they had burned followed their rear, some of whom those who had the charge of it had killed, and taken others prisoners in an ambuscade; they had also taken twenty bucklers, made of ox-hides, with the hair on.”
“The noise still increasing as they came nearer, and the men, as fast as they came up, running to those who still continued shouting, their cries swelled with their numbers; so that Xenophon, thinking something more than usual had occurred, mounted his horse, and taking with him Lycius and his troop of cavalry, rode up to their assistance, and presently they hear the soldiers shouting—“THE SEA! THE SEA!” and cheering one another. At this all the rear-guard ran with the rest and thither were driven the horses and beasts of burden. When all were come together on the top of the mountain, they embraced their general, their captains, and one another, with many tears. And there, by whose orders is uncertain, the soldiers instantly bring together a vast number of stones, and raise a great monument, on which they placed a number of shields made of raw hides, and many other trophies taken from the enemy.”
Xenophon, Anab. Lib. iv. cap. 7.As o'er the blackening Bosphorus they sweep,
Byzantium seems to meet them on the deep,
And gladdening thoughts of their dear Athens come
In each green olive and columnar dome;
There, in bright hour, resigned that glorious soul,
The warrior's trophy, for the sage's stole,
And left his name and story evermore,
To charm a world he almost saved before.
| Julia Alpinula | |