Page:Agamemnon (1877) Browning.djvu/56

40 Neither a city-sacker would I be,

Nor life, myself by others captive, see.

A swift report has gone our city through,

From fire, the good-news messenger: if true,

Who knows? Or is it not a god-sent lie?

Who is so childish and deprived of sense

That, having, at announcements of the flame

Thus novel, felt his own heart fired thereby,

He then shall, at a change of evidence,

Be worsted just the same?

It is conspicuous in a woman's nature,

Before its view to take a grace for granted:

Too trustful,—on her boundary, usurpature

Is swiftly made;