To know from you, without a hand or head, Of freemen in the full; free exercise To speak and act. Phil. I do entreat you, senators, Protect me from this scolding demagogue, And let us win your Damon. Demagogue, Philistius! Who was the demagogue, when at my challenge In fume and vapor? Dam. Silence, Damon, silence! And let the council use its privilege. Damon. Who bids me silence? Damocles, the soft And pliant willow, Damocles !-But come, What do you dare propose? Come, I'll be silent.- Phil. Resolve you then, is Dionysius This head indeed to us? Acting for us- Phil. Ay, and what needs the state That we may be wiser, and better ruled Than by ourselves we are; that the state's danger May have but his just meed, I do submit That forthwith we dissolve ourselves, and choose Damon. King! a king? First Sen. I do approve it. Second Sen. Ay, and I. A nation's right betrayed, And all content! O slaves! O parricides ! I blush to look around and call you men! To be a garrison, a common barrack, A common guard house, and for common cut throats! To after ages, or at best, but float A buoyant pestilence? Can ye but dig Your own dark graves, creep into them, and die! Damon. O! thanks for these few voices! but alas! Are you so bound in fetters of the mind, With blinded eyes, and weak and broken speech, That have been grandsires; women with their children, And those old men should lift their shivering voices, Could you make slaves of them? Phil. I dissolve the senate At its own vote and instance. Dam. And all hail! (Leaves his seat.) Hail, Dionysius, king of Syracuse ! Dion. Is this the vote? Damon. There is no vote! Philistius, Hold you your seat; keep in your places, senators. Dion. I ask, is this the vote? Phil. It is the vote, My gracious liege and sovereign! Damon. I say nay! You have not voted, Naxillus, nor Petus- Phil. In my capacity As head and organ of the city council, (They all kneel to Dionysius, except Damon.) Dion. I thank you, friends and countrymen, I thank ye! We do now, first assuming our own right, And vain contentious rivalry. Begone! A senator within the senate house. Dion. Traitor! and dost thou dare me to my face? But as some regal braggart sets it down In his vocabulary? And the sense, The broad, bright sense that nature hath assigned them For ever from thy knowledge; or if seen, And known, and put in use, denounced as treasonable, I am no traitor! But in mine allegiance Damon. What! hast thou then invoked Thy satellites already? (Enter Procles and soldiers.) (Damon rushes on Dionysius, and attempts to stab him.) Damon. First, Receive a freeman's legacy!-(He is intercepted by Procles.) Dionysius, Thy genius is triumphant, and old Syracuse Bows her to the dust at last!-'Tis done; 'tis over, Dion. We reserve This proud assassinating demagogue, For an example to his cut throat school!— Out of his blood We'll mix a cement to our monarchy.— Here do we doom him to a public death! Damon. Death's the best gift to one who never yet Wished to survive his country. Here are men Fit for the life a tyrant can bestow! Let such as these live on. Dion. Hold thou there! Lest having stirred our vengeance into wrath, Ha! have I touched thee, Damon? Is there a way Of universal nature? What, no word? And that same wide and sweeping hand of thine, Lie at thy side in inutility. Thou hast few moments left! Damon. I know thee well Thou art wont to use thy tortures on the heart, These are thy bloody metaphysics-this Thy barbarous philosophy.-I own Thou hast struck thy venomed sting into my soul. But while I am wounded, I despise thee still! My wife! my child!-O, Dionysius, Thou shouldst have spared me that!-Procles, lead on. XX.-FROM ALASCO.-Shee. ALASCO-CONRAD-MALINSKI-RIENSKI. Rienski. Conrad, you are warm, and misconceive Malinski. Engaged, as we are, in a noble cause, Contention now were fatal to our hopes. Conrad. Then let our conduct, like our cause, be noble. I do not seek contention, gentlemen! Nor will I turn me from an honest course, Malinski. Conrad, I perceive your aim; 'Tis to thwart me, that you would shield this Walsingham : He is no friend of yours. Con. No. If he were, And you had marked him on your bloody scroll, By heaven! my sword had soon effaced the record. The artifice that covers base revenge. Mal. Malice! Con. Yes, malice. I do not wear a mask, Nor play the patriot for my private ends. Dare you insinuate Mal. Con. Yes, to be a knave is promotion for a fool, And you should thank me for the title. Mal. Gods! Shall I bear this insolence! (Draws-the rest interfere to pre vent him.) Con. Nay, let him rage— I have a specific here for his complaint, (Draws.) That never failed me. Rien. Gentlemen, for shame! And Conrad, you—the soul of all our councils! You flash upon your friends? Con. Then, to be plain, I do not like this process we are engaged in. I am a soldier; and in way of trade, Have seldom been thought squeamish with my foes, When dealing face to face, and hand to hand ; But in this cold blood game of policy, To play with lives like counters, and to sit |