Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/218

 Moreover that same dangerous shouting meant Some gratitude for future favours, which Were only promised;—the Constituent Implied;—the whole being subject to the hitch In motu proprios, very incident To all these Czars, from Paul to Paulovitch. Whereat the people rose up in the dust Of the Duke's flying feet, and shouted still, And loudly, only, this time, as was just, Not "Live the Duke," who had fled, for good or ill But "Live the People," who remained and must, The unrenounced and unrenounceable.

Long live the people! How they lived! and boiled And bubbled in the cauldron of the street! How the young blustered, nor the old recoiled, And what a thunderous stir of tongues and feet Trod flat the palpitating bells, and foiled The joy-guns of their echo, shattering it! How they pulled down the Duke's arms every where! How they set up new café-signs, to show Where patriots might sip ices in pure air— (Yet the fresh paint smelt somewhat.) To and fro How marched the civic guard, and stopped to stare When boys broke windows in a civic glow. How rebel songs were sung to loyal tunes, And the pope cursed, in ecclesiastic metres! How all the Circoli grew large as moons, And all the speakers, moonstruck! thankful—greeters Of prospects which struck poor the ducal boons,