Excerpt from The Poems of Victor Hugo, Vol. 17 One Vlad refused his tribute - he they dub (i mean the Chief of Tunis) Beelzebub Who the Turk's envoys took, empaled them straight Each side the road, before the city gate. On Murad came, burned harvests, barns, and then The Boyard conquered; twenty thousand men Prisoners of war he took, compelled to yield; Next a vast wall built round the battlefield. The twenty thousand men in embrasures, Whence issue shrieks of torment, he immures; For every victim's eyes he made a slit; And when he left, upon the wall he writ, Stone-carver Murad to stake-planter Vlad. Strong faith the Sultan and devotion had. Once in Euboea, where his lightning came, He gave a hundred convents to the flame. Murad, for forty years dread homicide, Slaughtered mankind: God seemed with him to hide. He was supreme unnumbered armies o'er Was caliph, padishah, and emperor. Great is Murad! The priesthood shout the While. II Bad legislator, conqueror yet more vile, Having around him only abject troops, Slaves, and the crowd that in the mire stoops Souls tongued to lick his feet which hiding hate Praised him for crimes, always inexpiate. Flattered, embraced by conquered enemies, He lived immersed in incense, pride, and joys, With the vast weariness of worshiped eng. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.