THE FALL OF JERICHO.

"Tis he,

At whose bare nod a million swords ontsprung, Before whom armies withered at the touch, Whom nations worshipped on the supple knee, Caressed, served, flattered, by recumbent kings!" CARRINGTON.

THE FALL OF JERICHO.

"And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan; and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan." Joshua iii.

“And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city." Ib. vi.

SCENE I.-The interior of the Temple of Baal.The perpetual Fire burning, and the Priests attending the Sacrifices on Seven Altars.

The KING OF JERICHO, NOBLES, and PRIESTS.

KING.

THUS

we the holy incense on thy fire,

Lord of the skies, refulgent day-god, fling;

And pour from the gem-clustered vase the wine
To thee in full libation. King of light,d

Shine forth in all thy strength, and melt the snows
O' th' cedar-crowned heights of Lebanus;

And to a sea-broad river Jordan swell,

Beyond its wonted spring-tides far, till all
Our foes that lie encamped on its green banks
Are wasted and devoured with rank disease!
Dart forth thy brightest arrows on the heads
Of these invading Hebrews, as thou drivest,
Glory-insphered, thy chariot through the heavens ;
Blast them with burning fevers, blotches, blains,
And spotted pestilence, till their wide camp
A lazar-house become ! Then call thou forth
The blue fiend of the desert, whose hot breath
Nations consumes, to spread his purple wing
Over their yelling tents, till not a slave
Remain their dead to bury!

FIRST LORD.

Hast thou not,

O King of Jericho, sent forth a spy

To mark the movements of this dreaded foe?

KING.

Two days ago I sent Zephazor hence,

T'wards the western banks of Jordan's barrier flood;

And he, ere this, should have returned to me,
With tidings of that strange, though mighty people.

SECOND LORD.

Mighty indeed! The tale is old and rife

Among the warlike kingdoms of this land,

That this new nation, come from Mizraim's coast,
Shall root them out of their strong holds, and turn
Their royal cities into smoky heaps;

Among its tribes fair Canaan's realms divide,
And those who fall not by the sword, drive out
To roam o'er the wild waters of the sea,
Or pine sad exiles in far distant climes.

FIRST LORD.

The hearts of warrior-kings and giant-chiefs
Faint with dismay, e'en at the very name
Of Israel, and its wonder-working God.
Who has not heard how He the rolling waves
Of th' Erythræan sea divided, and a path
Through the dark oozy depths made for his host
To pass in safety: while the billowy swell,
That rose on either side, a bulwark firm

As walls and towers of brass, down rolling fell
On Egypt's flower of warriors, who had dared
The Hebrew tribes pursue, and ere the dawn
The parted waves had closed on prancing steed,
On iron chariot, and fierce charioteer,

On helm and plume, on downcast shield and lance!

SECOND LORD.

And has not this redoubted Israel slain
Sihon, the King of Heshbon; to the sword
Given all his people? Nay, discomfited