Let your foul usuance1 eat away the substance of the

poor.

Still let your haggard debtors bear all their fathers bore; Still let your dens of torment be noisome 2 as of yore; No fire when Tiber freezes; no air in dog-star3 heat; And store of rods for free-born backs, and holes for free-born feet.

Heap heavier still the fetters; bar closer still the grate; Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate. But, by the Shades 5 beneath us, and by the Gods above, Add not unto your cruel hate your yet more cruel love!

Have ye not graceful ladies, whose spotless lineage springs

6

From Consuls and High Pontiffs, and ancient Alban

kings?7

Ladies, who deign not on our paths to set their tender

feet,

Who from their cars look down with scorn upon the wondering street,

Who in Corinthian mirrors their own proud smiles behold,

1 Usuance: usury. The usury laws were so severe that the person who borrowed money was practically entirely at the mercy of the lender, who not infrequently imprisoned him or even sold him into slavery.

2 Noisome: disgusting, destructive to health.

8 Dog-star: the same as dog-day.

4 Holes, etc.: stocks into which the feet of debtors were thrust and confined. 5 Shades: the spirits of the departed.

6 High Pontiffs: High Priests.

7 Alban kings: the earliest of the Italian kings, who reigned according to tradition at Alba Longa, the mother-city of Rome. 8 Cars chariots.

9 Corinthian mirrors: Corinth was noted for its costly ornaments and works of art and luxury.

And breathe of Capuan odors,1 and shine with Spanish

gold? 2

Then leave the poor Plebeian 3 his single tie to lifeThe sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister and of

wife,

The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vexed soul endures,

The kiss, in which he half forgets even such a yoke as

yours.

Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride;

Still let the bridegroom's arms infold an unpolluted bride.

Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame, That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to flame,

Lest, when our latest hope is fled, ye taste of our de

spair,

And learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare."

* 4

Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside, To where the reeking shambles 5 stood, piled up with horn and hide,

Close to yon low dark archway, where, in a crimson flood,

Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood.

1 Capuan odors: Capua, a city a sbort distance from Naples; it was celebrated for its riches and luxury.

2 Spanish gold: Spain was famous for its mines of precious metals.

3 Plebe'ian: a man without rank, one of the common people.

4 Virginius: the father of Virginia.

5 Shambles: a butcher's shop.

Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle 1

down;

Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown. And then his eyes grew very dim, and his throat began to swell,

And in a hoarse, changed voice he spake, “Farewell, sweet child! Farewell!

Oh! how I loved my darling! Though stern I sometimes be,

To thee, thou know'st I was not so. Who could be so

to thee?

And how my darling loved me! How glad she was to

hear

My footstep on the threshold when I came back last

year!

And how she danced with pleasure to see my civic

crown,2

And took my sword, and hung it up, and brought me forth my gown! 3

Now all those things are over—yes, all thy pretty ways, Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays; And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I return,

Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon his urn.5

1 Whittle: a knife; here, a butcher-knife.

2 Civic crown: a crown composed of oak leaves, and given to a Roman soldier who had saved the life of another Roman in battle by killing his antagonist.

3 Gown: the toga, a white gown, the ordinary and distinctive dress of the Romans.

4 Lays: songs.

5 Urn: the Romans burned the bodies of their dead and enclosed the ashes in a funeral urn.

The house that was the happiest within the Roman

walls,

The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's mar

ble halls,

Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom,

And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tomb. The time is come. See how he points his eager hand this way!

See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's1 upon the prey!

With all his wit,2 he little deems,3 that, spurned, betrayed, bereft,

Thy father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left. He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still

can save

Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portion of the slave;

Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and

blow

Foul outrage which thou knowest not, which thou shalt never know.

Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss ;

And now, mine own dear little girl, there is no way but this."

With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the

side,

And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died.

1 Kite: a rapacious bird of the falcon family.
2 Wit: intellect, sagacity.

3 Deems: thinks.

Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath;

And through the crowded Forum was stillness as of

death;

And in another moment brake forth from one and all
A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall.
Some with averted faces shrieking fled home amain ;
Some ran to call a leech;1 and some ran to lift the slain :
Some felt her lips and little wrist, if life might there be

found;

And some tore up their garments fast, and strove to stanch the wound.

In vain they ran, and felt, and stanched; for never truer blow

That good right arm had dealt in fight against a Volscian foe.

When Appius Claudius saw that deed, he shuddered and sank down,

And hid his face some little space with the corner of

his gown,

Till, with white lips and bloodshot eyes, Virginius tottered nigh,

2

And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife

on high.

"Oh! dwellers in the nether gloom,3 avengers of the slain,1

By this dear blood I cry to you, do right between us twain ;

1 Leech: a physician.

2 Judgment-seat: the seat of the judges or magistrates of the city.

8 Nether gloom: the gloom of Hades, the lower world, or place of departed spirits. 4 Avengers of the slain: the Furies; see p. 29.