Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/110

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92
THE DANCE TO DEATH.


Seem to instruct my master. Accident
Lifts me where I survey a broader field
Than wise men stationed lower. I spy peril,
Fierce flame invisible from the lesser peaks.
Gk)d's time is now. Delayed truth leaves a lie
Triumphant. If you harbor any secret,
Potent to force an ear that 's locked to mercy,
In Gkxl's name, now disbosom it.

SUSSKIND.

Kind Heaven !
Would that my people's safety were assured .
So is my child's ! Where shall we turn ? Where flee?
For all around us the Black Angel broods.
We step into the open jaws of death
If we go hence.

PRINCE WILLIAM.

Better to fall beneath
The hand of Grod, than be cut off by man.

SijSSKIND.

We are trapped, the springe is set. Not ignorantly
I offered counsel in the Synagogue,
Quelled panic with authoritative calm,
But knowing, having weighed the opposing risks.
Our friends in Strasburg have been overmastered.
The imperial voice is drowned, the papal arm