Breathe fires; but ten miles from Paris let all be peace, nor a soldier be seen!" '

He ended: the wind of contention arose, and the clouds cast their shadows; the Princes

Like the mountains of France, whose agèd trees utter an awful voice, and their branches

Are shatter'd; till gradual a murmur is heard descending into the valley,

Like a voice in the vineyards of Burgundy when grapes are shaken on grass,

Like the low voice of the labouring man, instead of the shout of joy;

And the palace appear'd like a cloud driven abroad; blood ran down the ancient pillars.

Thro' the cloud a deep thunder, the Duke of Burgundy, delivers the King's command: --

`Seest thou yonder dark castle, that moated around, keeps this city of Paris in awe?

Go, command yonder tower, saying: "Bastille, depart! and take thy shadowy course;

Overstep the dark river, thou terrible tower, and get thee up into the country ten miles.

And thou black southern prison, move along the dusky road to Versailles; there

Frown on the gardens" -- and, if it obey and depart, then the King will disband

This war-breathing army; but, if it refuse, let the Nation's Assembly thence learn

That this army of terrors, that prison of horrors, are the bands of the murmuring kingdom.'

Like the morning star arising above the black waves, when a ship-wreck'd soul sighs for morning,

Thro' the ranks, silent, walk'd the Ambassador back to the Nation's Assembly, and told

The unwelcome message. Silent they heard; then a thunder roll'd round loud and louder;

Like pillars of ancient halls and ruins of times remote, they sat.

Like a voice from the dim pillars Mirabeau rose; the thunders subsided away;

A rushing of wings around him was heard as he brighten'd, and cried out aloud:

`Where is the General of the Nation?' The walls re-echo'd: `Where is the General of the Nation?'

Sudden as the bullet wrapp'd in his fire, when brazen cannons rage in the field,

Fayette sprung from his seat saying `Ready!' Then bowing like clouds, man toward man, the Assembly

Like a Council of Ardours seated in clouds, bending over the cities of men,

And over the armies of strife, where their children are marshall'd together to battle,

They murmuring divide; while the wind sleeps beneath, and the numbers are counted in silence,

While they vote the removal of War, and the pestilence weighs his red wings in the sky.

So Fayette stood silent among the Assembly, and the votes were given, and the numbers numb'red;