The Fall of Magdeburg

John Bruce Norton

"Troy and Jerusalem have fallen, but ne'er,"
Wrote Tilly, "the destroying angel, sire,
Lit, until now, a city's funeral pyre,
Like that which hath laid low the strong and fair,
But heretic Magdeburg."— 0, bid me spare
The tale: my blood would freeze, or brain would fire,
To tell the horrors which sectarian ire,
Croat, Walloon, scarred Pappenheini, wrought there.
Yet mid the flames, and thirty thousand dead,
While salvos from the smoke-grimed cannon leaped,
The victors, lust-polluted, murder-fed,
Mocked God in the Cathedral, chanting high
*'Te Deum," and the demon Blasphemy
Veiled on the altar-steps his face, and wept.


Main Location:

Magdeburg, Germany