POETRY OF THE SENTIMENTS.

287

KINGLY CLEMENCY.

BY BYRON.

PLEASE you to hear me, Satraps!

And chiefly thou, my priest, because I doubt thee
More than the soldier, and would doubt thee all
Wert thou not half a warrior: let us part
In peace-I'll not say pardon-which must be
Earn'd by the guilty: this I'll not pronounce ye,
Although upon this breath of mine depends
Your own; and, deadlier for ye, on my fear.
But fear not-for that I am soft, and fearful-
And so live on. Were I the thing some think me
Your heads would now be dripping the last drops
Of their attainted gore from the high gates
Of this our palace, into the dry dust,
Their only portion of the coveted kingdom
They would be crown'd to reign o'er-let that pass.
As I have said, I will not deem ye guilty,
Nor doom ye guiltless. Albeit better men
Than ye or I stand ready to arraign you:
And should I leave your fate to sterner judges,
And proofs of all kinds, I might sacrifice
Two men, who, whatsoe'er they now are, were
Once honest. Ye are free, sirs,

Your swords and persons are at liberty

To use them as ye will-but from this hour
I have no call for either.

TITUS' ADDRESS TO THE JEWS.

BY MILMAN.

MEN of Jerusalem! whose hardy zeal
And valiant patience in a cause less desperate
Might force the foe to reverence and admire;
To you thus speaks again the Queen of Earth,
All-conqu❜ring Rome! whose kingdom is where'er
The sunshine beams on living men; beneath
The shadow of whose throne the world reposes,
And glories in being subjected to her,
Even as 'tis subject to the immortal gods-
To you, whose mad and mutinous revolt
Hath harrow'd all your rich and pleasant land
With fiery rapine; sunk your lofty cities
To desolate heaps of monumental ashes;
Yet with that patience, which becomes the mighty,
The endurance of the lion, that disdains
The foe whose conquest brings no glory with it.
Rome doth command you to lay down your arms,
And bow the high front of your proud rebellion,
Even to the common level of obedience
That holds the rest of human kind. So doing,
Ye cancel all the dark and guilty past:
Silent Oblivion waits to wipe away
The record of your madness and your crimes;
And in the stead of bloody Vengeance, claiming
Her penal due of torture, chains and death,
Comes reconciling Mercy.