Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/164

146 Not thoa alone, my private foe, shalt die, But all thy race. Thee had my vengeance reached, Without appeal to Prince or citizen. Silence ! my heart is cuirassed as my breast. Bear with us, gracious lords ! My friend is - stunned. He is an honest man. Even I, as 't were, Am stupefied by this surprising news. Yet, let me think — it seems it is not new, This is an ancient, weU^remembered pain. What, brother, came not one who prophesied This should betide exactly as it doth ? That was a shrewd old man! Your pardon, lords, I think you know not just what you would do. You say the Jews shall bum — shall burn you say; Why, good my lords, the Jews are not a flock Of gallows-birds, they are a colony Of kindly, virtuous folk. Come home with me ; I 'll show you happy hearths, glad roofs, pure lives. Why, some of them are little quick-eyed boys. Some, pretty, ungrown maidens — children's children Of those who called me to the pastorate. And some are beautiful tall girls, some, youths