INSTANCES OE CLEMENCY. 
467 
amazed at the barbarity so unbecoming a human creature, with a 
generous disdain refused to obey him, at the same time upbraiding 
him with his cruelty ; upon which the planter turning all his rage on 
him, ordered him to be immediately stripped, and commanded Arthur, 
to whom he promised forgiveness, to give his countryman the lashes 
which he had been destined to receive. This proposal he heard with 
scorn, protesting he would rather suffer the most dreadful torture 
than injure his friend. This generous conflict, which must have raised 
the strongest feelings in a breast susceptible of pity, did but more 
inflame the monster, who now determined they should both be made 
examples of, and, to satiate his revenge, was preparing to begin with 
Arthur, when the negro drew a knife from his pocket, stabbed the 
planter to the heart, and at the same time struck it to his own, re- 
joicing with his last breath, that he had avenged his friend and the 
w'orld of such a monster. 
Instances of Clemency. 
Two patricians having conspired against Titus Vespasian, the 
Roman emperor, were discovered, convicted, and sentenced to death 
by the senate ; but that excellent prince sent for them, and admo- 
nished them that in vain they aspired to the empire, which was given 
him by destiny, exhorting them to be satisfied with the rank in which 
by Providence they had been placed, and offering them any thing else 
which was in his power to grant. At the same time he despatched a 
messenger to the mother of one of them, who was then at a great dis- 
tance, and under deep concern about the fate of her son, to assure her 
that her son was not only alive, but forgiven. — Licinius having raised 
a numerous army, (Zosimus says, thirteen thousand men,) attempted to 
wrest the government out of the hands of his brother-in law Constan- 
tine the emperor. But his army being defeated, Licinius fled, with 
what forces he could rally, to Nicomediai whither Constantine pur- 
sued him, and immediately invested the place ; but on the second day 
of the siege, the emperor’s sister entreating him to forgive her hus- 
band, and grant him at least his life, he granted her request, and the 
next day Licinius, throwing himself at his feet, delivered up the pur- 
ple and the other ensigns of sovereignty. Constantine received him 
in a very friendly manner, entertained him at his table, and afterwards 
sent him to Thessalonica, assuring him that he should live unmolested, 
so long as he raised no new disturbances. 
Clemency seems to be rather a personal than national virtue ; yet 
Mr. Rollin, after narrating the revolution in Athens by the expulsion 
of the thirty tyrants, and the general amnesty that took place upon 
the motion of the excellent Thrasybulus, speaks of it as one of the 
finest events in ancient history, worthy the Athenian clemency and 
benevolence, and which has served as a model to successive ages in 
all good governments. 
Never had tyranny been more cruel and bloody, than that which 
the Athenians had at this time thrown off. Every house was in 
mourning, every family bewailed the loss of some relation ; it had been 
a series of public robbery and rapine, in which impunity had authorized 
