University of Virginia Library

“'Tis true, he was a tool from first to last
(I have the workmen safe); but as a tool
So let him be consumed. From out the past
Of ages, since mankind have known the rule
Of monarchs—from the bloody rolls amassed
Of Sin and Slaughter—from the Cæsars' school,

502

Take the worst pupil; and produce a reign
More drenched with gore, more cumbered with the slain.