Page:CromwellHugo.djvu/133

The vassal regicide and murd'rous queen.
Cromwell [dismissing Filippi with a displeased gesture.
Farewell, Sir Swede, of Terracina born!
[To Whitelocke, in an undertone.
Filippi and Mancini! Everywhere
Close bonds unite intrigue with the Italian.
Those bastard Romans, without character
Or laws, degenerate inheritors
Of the world's masters who upraised so high
The sword of battle, still do rule the world,
But from below! And Rome, whose ordinance
Europe obeys, now casts a lynx's glance
Where gleamed of old the eagle's piercing eye.
The chain imposed on twenty distant nations
Is by a hidden thread replaced, which moves
Base jumping-jacks. O dwarfs, from giants sprung!
O foxes in the she-wolf's womb conceived!
We find you with your soft words everywhere.
Filippi, Mazarini and Mancini!
Satan, to scheme, should take a name in i.
[To the Dutch Envoys, after a pause.
What would you, sirs? The truce is at an end.
The Leader of the Dutch Envoys.⁠The States of the
United Provinces,
Free like yourselves, and, like you, Protestants,
Do sue to you for peace.
Cromwell [roughly.] …ou for peace. Nay, 'tis too late.
And more, the Parliament of this republic
Deems you too worldly in your politics,
And chooses not to make fraternal pacts
With allies who so vain and fleshly are.

[He waves his hand and the Envoys withdraw. Thereupon he seems to remark for the first time