Ii

And lo! with crimson banners proudly streaming, And upright weapons innocently gleaming, Along the surface of a spacious plain Advance in order the redoubted Bands, And there receive green chaplets from the hands Of a fair female train-- Maids and Matrons, dight In robes of dazzling white; While from the crowd bursts forth a rapturous noise By the cloud-capt hills retorted; And a throng of rosy boys In loose fashion tell their joys; And grey-haired sires, on staffs supported, Look round, and by their smiling seem to say, Thus strives a grateful Country to display The mighty debt which nothing can repay!