_By_ LORD BYRON
NOTE.--According to the account given in the fifth chapter of
_Daniel_, Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon, and the son of
the great king Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed Jerusalem and
taken the Jewish people captive to Babylon. The dramatic incident
with which the second stanza of Byron's poem deals is thus
described:
"In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote
over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the
king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote."
After all the Babylonian wise men had tried in vain to read the
writing, the "captive in the land," Daniel, was sent for, and he
interpreted the mystery.
"And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL,
UPHARSIN.
"This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered
thy kingdom, and finished it.
"TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
"PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and
Persians."
The fulfillment of the prophecy thus declared by Daniel is
described thus briefly: "In that night was Belshazzar the king of
the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom."
The King was on his throne,
The Satraps[153-1] throng'd the hall;
A thousand bright lamps shone
O'er that high festival.
A thousand cups of gold,
In Judah deem'd divine--
Jehovah's vessels hold[154-2]
The godless Heathen's wine.
In that same hour and hall
The fingers of a Hand
Came forth against the wall,
And wrote as if on sand:
The fingers of a man;--
A solitary hand
Along the letters ran,
And traced them like a wand.
The monarch saw, and shook,
And bade no more rejoice;
All bloodless wax'd his look,
And tremulous his voice:--
"Let the men of lore appear,
The wisest of the earth,
And expound the words of fear,
Which mar our royal mirth."
Chaldea's[154-3] seers are good,
But here they have no skill;
And the unknown letters stood
Untold and awful still.
And Babel's[154-4] men of age
Are wise and deep in lore;
But now they were not sage,
They saw--but knew no more.
[Illustration: THE WRITING ON THE WALL]
A Captive in the land,
A stranger and a youth,
He heard the king's command,
He saw that writing's truth;
The lamps around were bright,
The prophecy in view;
He read it on that night,--
The morrow proved it true!
"Belshazzar's grave is made,
His kingdom pass'd away,
He, in the balance weigh'd,
Is light and worthless clay;
The shroud, his robe of state;
His canopy, the stone:
The Mede is at his gate!
The Persian on his throne!"
[Illustration]