ELEGY I. THE SECOND OF MAY 1808 (third stanza)

As tender plants parch'd by an Artie breeze,
Which in its fury quivers rocks and trees,
Such Mantua in her num'rous offspring sees.
I saw, I did, her florid youth assail
Th'ominous Guest; but what did it avail?
Unarm'd they ran to work the gen'rous deed:
The guilty leader them condemn'd to bleed.
His word of honour and defence they nurs'd,
He tender'd all; then how could they but trust?
Who can depict, what pen can ever trace
The direful havoc which that bloody race
Made in defenceless people, who behold
The hungry wolf amid the timid fold?