Page:The Vespers of Palermo.pdf/22



Beneath Sicilian skies. The brother's eye Doth search distrustfully the brother's face; And friends, whose undivided lives have drawn From the same past, their long remembrances, Now meet in terror, or no more; lest hearts Full to o'erflowing, in their social hour, Should pour out some rash word, which roving winds Might whisper to our conquerors.—This it is, To wear a foreign yoke.

It matters not To him who holds the mastery o'er his spirit, And can suppress its workings, till endurance Becomes as nature. We can tame ourselves To all extremes, and there is that in life To which we cling with most tenacious grasp, Fv'n when its lofty claims are all reduced To the poor common privilege of breathing.— Why dost thou turn away?

What would'st thou with me! I deem'd thee, by th' ascendant soul which liv'd, And made its throne on thy commanding brow, One of a sovereign nature, which would scorn So to abase its high capacities For aught on earth.—But thou art like the rest. What would'st thou with me?

I would counsel thee, Thou must do that which men—ay, valiant men,— Hourly submit to do; in the proud court, And in the stately camp, and at the board Of midnight revellers, whose flush'd mirth is all