"There is no man whose soul and will and meaning
Stand forth as outward things for all to see,
Till he has shown himself by practice versed
In ruling under law and making laws.
As to myself, it is, and was of old,
My fixed belief that he is vile indeed
Who, when the general State his guidance claims,
Dares not adhere to wisest policy,
But keeps his tongue locked up for fear of somewhat.
Him too I reckon nowhere, who esteems
A private friend more than his fatherland.
*******
Nor would I ever count among my friends
My country's enemy; for well I know
She is the barque that brings us safe to port:
Sailing in her, unswayed by sidelong gales,
We make the only friends we ought to make."
And then he recites the words of the decree,—all the honours of the tomb to the brave champion who had fallen in defence of hearth and home; but as to the body of the outcast and renegade, who had brought fire and sword against the city of his fathers, it shall lie unburied and dishonoured, to be mangled by dogs and vultures. "Such is my will," concludes the king (and we can fancy the majestic wave of the hand with which a great actor would have accompanied the words); and then he announces that, in order to secure obedience to his mandate, a watch had been already set to guard the body.
He has scarcely spoken before one of the watchmen enters—a personage alien from the general lofty vein of tragedy. He is emphatically "vulgar"—a true son
