206 DRAMATIC SCENES. 



SIR E. Honour, thou blood- stain 'd god ! at whose red 



altar 



Sit War and Homicide : O ! to what madness 

 Will insult drive thy votaries ! By Heaven ! 

 In the world's range, there does not breathe a man 

 Whose brutal nature I more strove to soothe, 

 With long forbearance, kindness, courtesy, 

 Than his who fell by me. But he disgraced me, 

 Stain d me, oh, death, and shame ! the world look'd on 

 And saw this *SINEWY SAVAGE strike me down; 

 Rain blows upon me, drag me to and fro, 

 On the base earth, like carrion. Desperation, 

 In every fibre of my frame, cried vengeance! 

 I left the room, which he had quitted : Chance, 

 (Curse on the chance !) while boiling with my wrongs, 



Thrust me against him, darkling, in the street : 



I stabb'd him to the heart : And my oppressor 



Roll'd, lifeless, at my foot. 



WILF. Oh ! mercy on me ! 



How could this deed be cover'd ? 



SIR E. Would you think it? 

 E'en at the moment when I gave the blow, 

 Butcher da. fellow- creature in the dark, 

 I had all good men's love. But my disgrace, 

 And my opponent's death, thus link'd with it, 

 Demanded notice of the magistracy. 

 They summon'd me, as friend would summon friend, 

 To acts of import, and communication. 

 We met: and 'twas resolv'd, to stifle rumor, 

 To put me on my trial. No accuser, 



No evidence appear'd, to urge it on : 



'Twas meant to clear my fame. How clear it then ? 



How cover it 1 you say. Why, by a LIE : 

 Guilt's offspring, and its guard. I taught this breast. 

 Which truth once made her throne, to forge a LIE : 

 This tongue to utter it ; rounded a tale, 

 Smooth as a seraph's song from Satan's mouth ; 

 So well compacted, that the o'erthrong'd court 



* The recollection of the insults he received almost overpowers him. 



