Page:Glenarvon (Volume 3).djvu/31

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there, indeed, he stands amongst us. Say, shall he speak to you?" "Long life to him—let him speak to us." "Hear him." "Let there be silence as profound as death." "Sure and indeed we'll follow him to the grave." "Och, he's a proper man!" A thousand voices having thus commanded silence:

"Irishmen," said Glenarvon, throwing his dark mantle off, and standing amidst the grotesque and ferocious rabble, like some God from a higher world—"Irishmen, our country shall soon be free:—you are about to be avenged. That vile government, which has so long, and so cruelly oppressed you, shall soon be no more! The national flag—the sacred green, shall fly over the ruins of despotism; and that fair capital, which has too long witnessed the debauchery, the plots, the crimes of your tyrants, shall soon be the citadel of triumphant patriotism and virtue. Even if we fail, let us die defending the rights of man—*