CARMAGNOLA TO THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE.
(1432.)
I hear my death-bell tolling in the square;
And I am ready, ye Venetian Ten!
But God at times reveals to dying men
The Future's depths, and what the years prepare:
And, through Time's veil, I see, as through thick air,
A day of doom beyond your finite ken,
When this strong Venice—old and feeble then—
In vain, like me, shall call on men to spare.
The day shall come when she shall drink of gall,
And when the same blind fear that makes you take
My life to-day, shall consummate her fall;
When she shall take the noise her own troops make
For the strong foe, and, in this very hall,
In her wild fear, her old sea-sceptre break.
