1.

Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note!
Ho, lictors, clear the way!

The Knights will ride, in all their pr
Along the streets to-day.
To-day the doors and windows
Are hung with garlands all,
From Castor in the Forum,

To Mars without the wall.
Each Knight is robed in purple,
With olive each is crown'd;

A gallant war-horse under each
Paws haughtily the ground.
While flows the Yellow River,
While stands the Sacred Hill,
The proud Ides of Quintilis

Shall have such honour still.

Gay are the Martian Kalends:

December's Nones are gay:

But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides, Shall be Rome's whitest day.

2.

Unto the Great Twin Brethren
We keep this solemn feast.

Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren
Came spurring from the east.
They came o'er wild Parthenius

Tossing in waves of pine,

O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam,

O'er purple Apennine,

From where with flutes and dances

Their ancient mansion rings,

In lordly Lacedæmon,

The City of two kings,

To where, by Lake Regillus,
Under the Porcian height,

All in the lands of Tusculum,

Was fought the glorious fight.

3.

Now on the place of slaughter

Are cots and sheepfolds seen,

That moulder deep below. Little they think how sternly

That day the trumpets pealed; How in the slippery swamp of blood Warrior and war-horse reeled; How wolves came with fierce gallop, And crows on eager wings,

To tear the flesh of captains,

And peck the eyes of kings;

How thick the dead lay scattered
Under the Porcian height;

How through the gates of Tusculum
Raved the wild stream of flight;

And how the Lake Regillus

Bubbled with crimson foam,

N

What time the Thirty Cities

Came forth to war with Rome.

4.

But, Roman, when thou standest

Upon that holy ground,

Look thou with heed on the dark rock
That girds the dark lake round.
So shalt thou see a hoof-mark

Stamped deep into the flint:
It was no hoof of mortal steed
That made so strange a dint:
There to the Great Twin Brethren
Vow thou thy vows, and pray
That they, in tempest and in fight,
Will keep thy head alway.

5.

Since last the Great Twin Brethren

Of mortal eyes were seen, Have years gone by an hundred And fourscore and thirteen.

That summer a Virginius

Was Consul first in place; The second was stout Aulus,

Of the Posthumian race.