Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/395

 POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES

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��Fama, bonum quo non aliud veracius ullum, Nobis digna cani, nee te memorasse pigebit Carmine tarn longo; servati scilicet Angli Officiis, vaga diva, tuis tibi reddimus fequa. Te Dens, aeternos motu qui temperat ignes, Fulmine prjemisso, alloquitur, terraque tre-

mente : 200

" Fama, siles ? an te latet impia Papista-

rum Conjurata cohors in meque meosque Bri-

tannos, Et nova sceptrigero caedes meditata

lacobo ? " Nee plura: ilia statim sensit mandata

Tonantis,

Et, satis ante f ugax, stridentes induit alas, Induit et variis exilia corpora pluinis; Dextra tubam gestat Temesseo ex sere sono-

ram. Nee mora; jam pennis cedentes remigat

auras, Atque parum est cursu celeres prsevertere

nubes; Jam ventos, jam solis equos, post terga reli-

quit: 210

Et primb Angliacas, solito de more, per

urbes Ambiguas voces incertaque murmura spar-

git;

Mox arguta dolos et detestabile vulgat Proditionis opus, nee non facta horrida

dictu, Authoresque addit sceleris, nee garrula

caecis

Insidiis loca structa silet. Stupuere relatis, Et pariter juveues, pariter tremuere pu-

elke

Effcetique senes pariter, tantaaque ruinas Sensus ad setatem subit6 penetraverat om-

nem.

Attamen interea populi miserescit ab alto ^Ethereus Pater, et crudelibus obstitit

ausis 221

Papicolum. Capti poenas raptantur ad

acres ; At pia thura Deo et grati solvuntur hon-

ores: Compita laeta focis genialibus omnia fu-

niant; Turba chores juvenilis agit; Quintoque

Novembris Nulla dies toto occurrit celebratior anno.

��good deed, than which there was never a better. Thou art worthy to be praised in my song ; I shall not be reproached for the length of my celebration of thee. For through thy offices, uncertain goddess, the English were saved, and we should render thee fit recompense. God, who tempers with motion the eternal fires, sent forth His thunderbolt, and while the earth shook therewith, thus spake to thee : " Rumor, art thou silent ? Does the impious plot of the Papists against me and my Britains escape thee, and the murder meditated against king James ? " No more He spake, but straightway she heeds the mandates of the Thunderer ; and, swift before, now she binds to her light body strident wings of various plumage, and iu her right hand takes a horn of sounding brass. She tarries not. Her wings oar the yielding atmosphere. 'T is not enough for her to pass in flight the driving clouds ; she leaves the winds behind now, and now the horses of the Sun. First, as is her wont, she scatters vague whispers, uncertain rumors, through the English cit- ies ; then with keener voice publishes the designs of the enemy and his detestable work of guile ; she reveals the facts in all their horror and adds in her garrulity the very authors of the crime and the place prepared for its execution. At her tale young men stand stupefied, maidens tremble, and weak old men ; the sense of the awful ruin to come overwhelms all ages equally. But meanwhile the Heavenly Father pities this people from on high, and frustrates the daring cruelty of the Papists. The plotters are captured and dragged to tor- ture. Incense and honors are offered to God in gratitude ; all altars smoke with genial fires. The young men dance. No day in all the year is more celebrated than the Fifth of November.

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