University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

The Palace of Tullia.
Enter Flavius Corunna, in haste, meeting Horatius
Cor.
My lord, my lord! Quick, tell me, where's the queen?

Hor.
Whence this alarm? what would'st thou?

Cor.
Rebellion rages—

Hor.
Rebellion!

Cor.
Lucretia,
The wife of Collatinus, is no more.
The furious multitude have borne her body
With shouts of vengeance through the streets of Rome,
And “Sextus Tarquin,” is the general cry.

Hor.
Where are thy troops? why dost thou dally here,
When thou should'st pay their insolence with death.

Cor.
The soldiers join the throng—the gates are clos'd,
And the mad crowd exclaim, “We banish Tarquin.”
Brutus all wild with vengeance leads them on.

Hor.
What miracle is this? How sayst thou, Brutus?

Cor.
Aye, the fool Brutus. Now before the rostrum
The body of Lecretia is expos'd,
And Brutus there harrangues assembled Rome.
He waves aloft
The bloody dagger; all the people hear him
With wildest admiration and applause;
He speaks as if he held the souls of men
In his own hand, and moulded them at pleasure.
They look on him as they would view a god,
Who, from a darkness which invested him,
Springs forth, and knitting his stern brow in frowns,
Proclaims the vengeful will of angry Jove.

Hor.
Fly thro' the city; gather all the force
You can assemble, and straight hasten hither.
I'll to the Queen—Lose not a moment. Hence!
tremble for Rome's safety!—haste—begone!

[Exeunt at opposite sides.