University of Virginia Library

SCENE VIII.

Enter Soldiers bearing Ensigns and Eagles, and after them Segestes.
Arminius.
Ere now, Segestes, we have often met
On better terms; together we have sought
Th'embattled foe, our hearts with equal ardour
Panting for glory, and our pointed javelins
Thirsting for hostile blood. But now that bond
Of gen'rous union is dissolv'd for ever.

Segestes.
Judge not too rashly: Still this bosom glows
With social love; still feels the sympathy
Of kind affections; anger and resentment
For my lost daughter now subside in peace.
Foes in the field, in private we are friends.

Arminius.
Friendship is founded on the noblest basis;
On generous sentiment, and public virtue;
On truth, on honour, and congenial minds.
Treason and honour never can embrace.
Now, speak your embassy: I long to hear
The orator of Rome.

Segestes.
My embassy
Aims at the peace of Germany and Rome.
Wide wasting war too long has made the land
A scene of desolation. Helpless widows,
Afflicted virgins, and unhappy orphans
Are bath'd in tears. Your fields are cover'd o'er
With the unburied limbs of slaughter'd soldiers,
Romans and Germans; all your sacred groves
Are levell'd in the dust, and all your rivers
Surcharg'd with blood run purple to the sea.

Arminius.
But whence those horrors? Say, with truth declare,
Who were the authors of that wild destruction?

Segestes.
To trace our mutual errors to their source,
And on the Roman, or Cheruscan name
To fix the cause, is not within my province.
I come the harbinger of peace; I come,
To state the message of the Roman chief.
It is his wish by justice, and by mercy,
Not by the sword, to win consenting hearts,
To call the wand'ring German to the arts
Of polish'd manners, and of social life.
'Tis on this basis he would raise his trophies,
His truest glory.

Arminius.
Still I'm lost in darkness:
Wherefore this torrent of superflous speech?
If your new masters call it eloquence,
And Roman oratory, still to us
'Tis the mere pomp of words, and vain parade.
You come to offer peace; declare your terms.

Segestes.
Thus then Cæcina by my voice informs you.
Let the Visurgis be the western boundary
Of the Cheruscan state: From thence the country,
Far as the Albis whose impetuous course
Empties its current in the Northern sea,
Shall be your vast domain.

Arminius.
Yet tell me more:
Th'extensive region from the Western bank—

Segestes.
Far as the Rhine the nations shall submit
To the mild sway, the wisdom, and the laws,
By which the glory of Imperial Rome
Means to reform, and humanize the world.

Arminius.
[Rising.
Is this the boasted justice of your masters?
And is it thus they humanize the world?

Segestes.
Where'er they penetrate, fair order dawns.

Arminius.
Where'er they penetrate, oppression follows.

Segestes.
The whole Cheruscan state is granted to you.
You wage no war for conquest.

Arminius.
The Cheruscans
Wish for no conquest; conquest is the aim
Of murd'rers flush'd with insolence and pride.
The fell ambition of the haughty Romans
Gave us, in evil hour! Between the Rhine
And the Visurgis to behold their eagles,
Their lictors, tribunes, and their vile collectors,
Exactions, tribunes, cruelty and lust;
Rapine and murder!—These are their exploits;
A band of robbers!—Are the nations rich?
Happy and thriving? Roman avarice
Becomes their foe. Do they endure distress,
And pine in want? Roman ambition still
Aims at new victory: To them alike
The wealth and poverty of nations; all
Must fall before your sov'reigns of the world.
To rob and ravage is their art of war,
And when they've made a solitude around them,
They call it peace.

Segestes.
Their offer now imports
A firm, a lasting peace: Within your limits
Live safe, and uninvaded: Rome is willing
On terms to grant a vast extensive region.

Arminius.
[Rising.
Think you I mean to merchandize the war?
To barter part of Germany? By sale,
And vile exchange, to traffic for our own?
Go tell your General my last resolve.
[Coming forward.
Let him give back my country; let him give
To free-born men their unmolested rights,
Their plan of laws, their temples, and their gods.
From the Visurgis let him call his legions;
Repass the Rhine, and on the side of Gaul
Enjoy the bank, which your divine Augustus
Vainly call'd Germany; there let him dwell
In sullen majesty, and let his Eagles
No more, like Vultures, hover o'er our heads.
Let him do this, Arminius grants him peace.

Segestes.
This haughty answer with redoubled fury
Will light the flame of war, and once again
Wide wasting slaughter shall stalk o'er the land.

Arminius.
Go and inform Cæcina, tell your Gen'ral
Till I have chas'd his robbers and freebooters
Back to the Rhine, my sword shall ne'er be sheath'd.
And if the Romans will not leave a space,
A scanty space, where I can live in freedom,
Arminius for himself will find a spot,
Where he can die with honour.

Segestes.
Must I bear
This answer to Cæcina?

Arminius.
End we here
This war of words: All parley now is clos'd.
Conduct the traitor to his Roman friends.

[Exit Segestes, with his Train.
Inguiomer.
We thank you, brave Arminius, for this zeal,
This gen'rous ardour for our sacred rights.

Arminius.
'Tis yours, my friends, 'tis yours this very night
To prove, by valour, that the Gods reserve us
To be asserters of the public weal,
And ere the dawn, by one collected blow
To wreak our vengeance on the Roman race.