University of Virginia Library

Scene IV.

A Public Square in the Capital.
Lovéro, Riordo, Carlan, and a tumultuous crowd of citizens, some shouting, “Down with all Emperors!” some, “Down with our enemies!”—“Up with the red flag!”—“Up with the white flag!”—“Drive out the invaders!”
CARLAN.
We 've been invaded long enough. Who are
Our enemies? That 's the question. Are they not
The miscreants who have gagged our speech, lest we
Should cry so loud against iniquity
That men would rise, and in their rightful wrath
Sweep these usurping tyrants from the soil?

RIORDO.
Aye, my dear countrymen; freedom to speak
Freedom to print, freedom to meet, all these,—
Which, mingled, make the blood of hardy manhood,
And robbed of which men cannot be but slaves,—
All these we know not of so long, our wills
Have basely ceased to value and to want them;
For Tyranny hath no more deadly bane
Than this, that it by use defiles the will.
Oppression's wormwood we have chewed so long,
We 've lost the flavor of sweet liberty.
The foreigner holds out a lifting hand:
No thanks to him. Once freed of native yoke,
The stranger we can rid us of at ease.

LOVÉRO.
My countrymen, which way we turn we 're weak.
A strength we yet may make of duty's beck.
Shorn of his might forever is the man
Whose single will has been our daily law.
A year ago a despot, he to-day,
Henceforth, dependent is upon ourselves.
That he usurped, sucking into himself
The sources of our public life and health;
That such a centring ever sounds the doom
Of freedom, drawing to one lung or few
The breath that should free circulate through all,
And, drained of which, each and the general whole
Languish in an unmanly servitude,—
All this is true, and more; and we have paid,
And long must pay, due penalties severe
For our submissiveness to tyranny.
Tyrant can Brangonar no longer be;
But we may be crushed, brayed by foreign heels.
But yesterday, and he and we were twain,—
Division fatal to all healthful polity;—
Now, he and we are one—or both are lost.
Loved countrymen, never until to-day
Did I feel scabbard flap upon my thigh,
And never till to-day did I uphold
Great Brangonar. Now, loyalty to him
Is loyalty to country and ourselves.
Before high Heaven and you I draw my sword,—
The first I ever drew,—and call on you
To follow me. I go to spend my blood,
My life, against our country's rageful foes,
To guard our hearths from desecration's tread.
Come on! all ye who hold your children dear,
Your wives, your mothers, and your sacred homes.

[Exit, the crowd rushing after him with shouts.
RIORDO.
Well, let them go: it is too late, too late.
Defection has the tyrant's force so sapped,
He can't make head against their swelling swarms.

CARLAN.
First down with him; then come what will or can.

[Exeunt.