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Upon my neck; or shouldst thou me consign,
Like Daniel, to the savage lions' den,
For my contumacy; or shouldst thou light
A terrifying fire of blazing pitch,
Hotter by sevenfold than e'er was seen,
That I, like Ananias, should behold
The flames encompass me on every side,
And flooding with their glare the domiciles
Of a degraded people, overpass
By many cubits the infernal stake!
Cromwell.⁠Be calm.
Carr. Be calm. Nay, never! shouldst thou give to me
The fields of Thebes and all the country round,
And Libanus and golden-gated Tyre,
And Ecbatana, built of quarried stone,
A thousand oxen and the fertile slime
Of the Egyptian Nile, a throne and all the skill
Of that magician who, from the ocean wave,
Caused flame to issue forth, singing the while,
And with a whistle called from distant lands,
Thorough the trackless azure of the skies,
Egyptian flies and Assur's honey-bees!
Nay, shouldst thou make me colonel in the army!
Cromwell [aside.]⁠'Tis hard to open a closed mouth by force.
I'll not attempt it.
[Offering Carr his hand.
I'll not attempt it. Carr, we are old friends,
God in his field hath set us, like two stones—
Carr.⁠Cromwell hath travelled far, for a mere stone!
Cromwell.⁠From pressing perils thou hast rescued me,
And I shall not forget. Who Cromwell saves—
Carr [abruptly.]⁠Insult me not! Carr saves but Israel.