 | Boadicia |  |
SCENE the sixth.
Dumnorix.Have I been guilty? answer me, my heart,
Who now wouldst burst my agonizing breast,
Hath Dumnorix been guilty? willt thou, Britain,
To me impute the horrours of this day?
Perhaps a Roman's policy had yielded,
And to a colleague's cruelty and pride
Had sacrific'd humanity and justice;
I did not so, and Albion is destroy'd.
Yet, O be witness, all ye gen'rous spirits,
So lately breathing in those heaps of death,
That in this day's extremity and peril
Your Dumnorix was mindful of his charge;
My shiver'd javelin, my divided shield,
And blunted sword, be witness for your master,
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Nor ev'n amid the carnage pil'd around me,
Will I relinquish my pursuit of hope—
Hope may forsake me—For myself I fear not—
But my Venusia—Ha! prepare, my soul—
There is thy struggle, on her tender mind
To graft thy firmness, which can welcome death,
And hold it gain, when liberty is lost.
| Boadicia | |