(Except perhaps i' the Chambers) day and night. We proved the poor should be employed,... that's fair,And yet the rich not worked for anywise,— Pay certified, yet payers abrogated,— Full work secured, yet liabilities To over-work excluded,—not one bated We proved that Austria was dislodged, or would Or should be, and that Tuscany in arms Should, would dislodge her, ending the old feud; And yet, to leave our piazzas, shops, and farms, For the simple sake of fighting, was not goodWe proved that also. 'Did we carry charms Against being killed ourselves, that we should rush On killing others? what, desert herewith Our wives and mothers ?—was that duty? tush !' At which we shook the sword within the sheath Like heroes-only louder; and the flush Ran up the cheek to meet the future wreath. Nay, what we proved, we shouted-how we shouted, (Especially the boys did) boldly planting That tree of liberty, whose fruit is doubted, Because the roots are not of nature's granting! A tree of good and evil: none, without it, Grow gods; alas and, with it, men are wanting! O holy knowledge, holy liberty, O holy rights of nations! If I speak These bitter things against the jugglery Of days that in your names proved blind and weak, It is that tears are bitter. When we see The brown skulls grin at death in churchyards bleak, For death grows deathlier with that mouth he makes. O freedom! O iny your sakes, Florence! Men who might Do greatly in a universe that breaks And burns, must ever know before they do. Courage and patience are but sacrifice; And sacrifice is offered for and to Something conceived of. Each man pays a price But here, no knowledge, no conception, nought! Desire was absent, that provides great deeds From out the greatness of prevenient thought: Then wavered, then went out. Behold, who blames. An ignorance of means may minister VOL. III. U To greatness, but an ignorance of aims Between the Austrian muskets, out of thrall: Discern true ends here, shall grow pure enough To love them, brave enough to strive for them, And strong to reach them though the roads be rough: That having learnt-by no mere apophthegmNot just the draping of a graceful stuff About a statue, broidered at the hem,— Not just the trilling on an opera-stage Of 'libertà' to bravos-(a fair word, Yet too allied to inarticulate rage And breathless sobs, for singing, though the chord Of some new morning, rising up agreed And bold, will want no Saxon souls or thews To sweep their piazzas clear of Austria's breed. Alas, alas! it was not so this time. Conviction was not, courage failed, and truth Was something to be doubted of. The mime Changed masks, because a mime. The tide as smooth. Seized on the people: they would have again Their good Grand-duke and leave Guerazzi, though He took that tax from Florence. Much in vain He takes it from the market-carts, we trow, While urgent that no market-men remain, Call back the mild archbishop to his house, Or else we stab him in the back, to end! Rub out those chalked devices, set up new The Duke's arms, doff your Phrygian caps, and mend The pavement of the piazzas broke into By barren poles of freedom: sinooth the way For the ducal carriage, lest his highness sigh 'Here trees of liberty grew yesterday!' 'Long live the Duke!'-how roared the cannonry, How rocked the bell-towers, and through thickening spray Of nosegays, wreaths, and kerchiefs tossed on high, How marched the civic guard, the people still Of being worthy even of so much noise! You think he came back instantly, with thanks He came to pardon fatherly those pranks And if your hearts should burn, why, hearts must burn, From Casa Guidi windows gazing, then, And sparkless. With her wide eyes at full strain, Our Tuscan nurse exclaimed, ' Alack, alack, Signora! these shall be the Austrians.' 'Nay, Be still,' I answered, do not wake the child!' -For so, my two-months' baby sleeping lay |