 | The defence of Rome |  |
VII.
But Oudinot chafed at his shame, and sware that the city should yield,
Were it force or fraud that should win it, if so his reproach might be healed.
Yet still for a month must he tarry, for now was a parley begun
Between Rome and the Envoy of France, who fain even then would have won
His country to justice and mercy; but baseness and treason prevailed,
As the voice of the vile grew stronger, the nobler faltered and failed.
What profit to tell of such parley, the backward and forward debate,
The defeat of the strivings of honour, the triumph of envy and hate?
Were it force or fraud that should win it, if so his reproach might be healed.
Yet still for a month must he tarry, for now was a parley begun
Between Rome and the Envoy of France, who fain even then would have won
His country to justice and mercy; but baseness and treason prevailed,
As the voice of the vile grew stronger, the nobler faltered and failed.
What profit to tell of such parley, the backward and forward debate,
The defeat of the strivings of honour, the triumph of envy and hate?
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Meanwhile, all unheeding the evil, the Spring on her magical way
Past on over Italy's mountains and wakened the glory of May;
And the young leaves whispered together, the elm to the plane-tree fair,
And far thro' the height of the heaven brake upward the infinite air.
But no Roman youth by a maiden might hearken the nightingale sing,
Or alone in the flowery silence catch faintly the footsteps of Spring:
One voice had the Spring for him only, to battle for freedom and right,
One voice sounding high o'er the cannon and clear in the crash of the fight.
Past on over Italy's mountains and wakened the glory of May;
And the young leaves whispered together, the elm to the plane-tree fair,
And far thro' the height of the heaven brake upward the infinite air.
But no Roman youth by a maiden might hearken the nightingale sing,
Or alone in the flowery silence catch faintly the footsteps of Spring:
One voice had the Spring for him only, to battle for freedom and right,
One voice sounding high o'er the cannon and clear in the crash of the fight.
But first the three hundred captives were led thro' the streets of Rome
By the side of the Romans to kneel in the shrine of the world-famed Dome;
Then back to their comrades they sent them, with brotherly voice of acclaim,
To bear to their captain this message, best crown of the Roman fame:
‘Let these be for witness between us, not yet will we deem it can be
That republic strive with republic, the free do wrong to the free.’
By the side of the Romans to kneel in the shrine of the world-famed Dome;
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To bear to their captain this message, best crown of the Roman fame:
‘Let these be for witness between us, not yet will we deem it can be
That republic strive with republic, the free do wrong to the free.’
| The defence of Rome | |