"THE Emperor Nepos was acknowledged by the "Senate, by the Italians, and by the Provincials of “Gaul; his moral virtues, and military talents, were 66 loudly celebrated; and those who derived any private “benefit from his government announced in prophetic "strains the restoration of public felicity. "By this shameful abdication, he protracted his life "a few years, in a very ambiguous state, between an "Emperor and an Exile, till Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. vi. p. 220. VOL. IV. M ODE то NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 1. 'Tis done-but yesterday a King! And arm'd with Kings to strive And now thou art a nameless thing So abject-yet alive! Is this the man of thousand thrones, Who strew'd our Earth with hostile bones, And can he thus survive? Since he, miscall'd the Morning Star, Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far. 2. Ill-minded man! why scourge thy kind By gazing on thyself grown blind, With might unquestion'd,-power to save Thine only gift hath been the grave To those that worshipp'd thee; Nor till thy fall could mortals guess Ambition's less than littleness! 3. Thanks for that lesson-it will teach To after-warriors more Than high Philosophy can preach, And vainly preach'd before. That spell upon the minds of men Breaks never to unite again, That led them to adore Those Pagod things of sabre-sway, With fronts of brass, and feet of clay. 4. The triumph, and the vanity, The rapture of the strife—(1) The earthquake voice of Victory, The sword, the sceptre, and that sway Which man seem'd made but to obey, All quell'd!-Dark Spirit! what must be 5. The Desolator desolate! The Victor overthrown! The Arbiter of others' fate A Suppliant for his own! Is it some yet imperial hope That with such change can calmly cope? Or dread of death alone? To die a prince—or live a slave— Thy choice is most ignobly brave! |