Lays of Ancient Rome - 10

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XIX
They held a council standing,
        Before the River-Gate;
Short time was there, ye well may guess,
        For musing or debate.
Out spake the Consul roundly:
        "The bridge must straight go down;
For, since Janiculum is lost,
        Nought else can save the town."

XX
Just then a scout came flying,
        All wild with haste and fear:
"To arms! to arms! Sir Consul:
        Lars Porsena is here."
On the low hills to westward
        The Consol fixed his eye,
And saw the swarthy storm of dust
        Rise fast along the sky.

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Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates one of the great heroic legends of history. Horatius saves Rome from the Etruscan invaders in 642 BC. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Horatio at the Bridge from the first edition.

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