XVI.

A moment now the bravest pause in awe, ’Twixt life and death. Next moment--direful clash! Opens in thunder every dragon-maw Of fierce artillery with its lightning-flash. As cleaves Heaven’s thunderbolt the mountain ash, So hurled in ruins is the battlement. While Furies with that scourge its granite lash, Not adamant, I ween, were long unbent, And wider grows the breach and easier of ascent.