University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SECOND.

Tiberius, Titus, Brutus.
Tib.
Beloved father,
Never could I have met thee in the forum
More opportunely. Wild with joy thou seest me:
I sought for thee. Breathless from too much haste
I am: with impulses ne'er felt before,
I am at once transported and oppress'd.
I have just seen the execrable Tarquins,
And trembled not ...

Tit.
Where was it?

Bru.
Where? ...

Tib.
I am
By my own eyes persuaded that the tyrant
Is of all men the least. The haughty king,
With impious Sextius, scarce had heard that Rome
Had risen in tumult, ere he left the camp;
And with a chosen escort towards the city
Fled with full speed: and here were they arrived
At the Carmental gate ...

Tit.
Precisely there
Where thou wert sentinel.

Tib.
Blest that I am!
I first against the tyrants, I the first
My sword unsheathed.—The iron gate was closed,
And fortified: in its defence myself,
With twenty other armed Romans, paced,
Accoutred all, exterior to the gate,
With circumambient vigilance. Behold,
With cries, with howlings, and with menaces,
The troop, twice ours in number, rush'd towards us.
To hear, to see, to recognize the miscreants,
To fall upon them with our weapons, seem'd
The labour of an instant. In ourselves
There was a strength and rage unlike to theirs:
Tyrants, they thought that they were meeting slaves:
But soon they learn'd that liberty and death,
Like twin-born instincts, hover'd round our swords.
Already ten or more had we destroy'd;
The residue, and Tarquin first of these,
Betook themselves to flight. Upon their heels
Fiercely and long we press'd, but press'd in vain;
Fear gave them wings. I afterwards return'd
To my appointed post beside the gate;
And, warm yet with the victory, swift I come
To thee to tell it.

Bru.
Trifling though it be,
Such sample of our prowess should be deem'd
An omen of prosperity to Rome.
Fain would I in that fray have borne a part;
For nothing so intensely do I covet
As to confront them in the strife of blood.
Oh! wherefore in the forum and the camp
Cannot I tongue, and intellect, and sword,
All, all at once exert! But with such sons
I can with ease be many things at once.

Tib.
Still have I more to tell thee. When to flight
I had these miscreants driven, as I return'd
Towards the walls, the sound of steeds I heard
Behind, advancing on our homeward path;
Backward I look'd, and lo! there came towards us
A single horseman from the tyrant's train.
His right-hand weaponless he raised; no sword
Guarded his side; an olive-branch he held
In his left-hand; beckoning to me, he cried:
I halted; he advanced; the messenger
Of peace, in supplicating tones he ask'd
Admission into Rome. T'enunciate
Conditions and apologies, he comes
To Brutus and the senate.

Bru.
To the people—
For Brutus is a portion of the people,
Or he is nothing. And the herald is? ...

Tib.
Mamilius: strict injunctions to my troops
Without the gates I gave to guard him well.
I came to know what must be done with him.

Bru.
He comes at the right time. This messenger
Could not have chosen to present himself
A day more solemn or more opportune.
Go, to the gate return; seek him; with thee
Quickly conduct him hither. If he dare,
Here shall he speak to universal Rome:
And here, an answer not of Rome unworthy
He will, I hope, receive.

Tib.
To him I fly.