Jephthah

44 JEPHTHAH. Furlong, and greets us with a joyous neigh As if he understood the victory. Enter Second Messenger. SECOND MESSENGER. Rejoice, O Israel, for this day hath seen Utter destruction overtake, and death Ride furious over, trampled necks of men Desperate in vain, and seen red hell gape wide To swallow up the heathen. Victory Swells the red-gleaming torrent of pursuit, And Israel shakes her lazy flanks at last A lion famished, and is greedy of death. CHORUS. O joyful day! And where is Jephthah now? | MESSENGER. Faint with the heat of a hard battle fought, But following hard after with the horse. For from Aroer even unto Minnith He smote them with a slaughter most unheard, And twenty cities saw from trembling walls Twice twenty thousand corpses; stragglers few Call to the rocks and woods, whose dens refuse Shelter and refuge to the fugitives, But, in revolt against the natural order, Gape like the ravening jaws of any beast To let. the furious invaders down