Page:The Vespers of Palermo.pdf/41

In her triumphant beauty?—Should we pause?
As if death were not mercy to the pangs
Which make our lives the records of our foes?
Let them all perish!—And if one be found
Amidst our band, to stay th' avenging steel
For pity, or remorse, or boyish love,
Then be his doom as theirs![A pause.
Why gaze ye thus?
Brethren, what means your silence?

Sici. Be it so!
If one amongst us stay th' avenging steel
For love or pity, be his doom as theirs!
Pledge we our faith to this!

Rai. (Rushing forward indignantly.)
Our faith to this!
No! I but dreamt I heard it!—Can it be?
My countrymen, my father!—Is it thus
That freedom should be won?—Awake! Awake
To loftier thoughts!—Lift up, exultingly,
On the crown'd heights, and to the sweeping winds,
Your glorious banner!—Let your trumpet's blast
Make the tombs thrill with echoes! Call aloud,
Proclaim from all your hills, the land shall bear
The stranger's yoke no longer!—What is he
Who carries on his practised lip a smile,
Beneath his vest a dagger, which but waits
Till the heart bounds with joy, to still its beatings?
That which our nature's instinct doth recoil from,
And our blood curdle at—Ay, yours and mine—
A murderer!—Heard ye?—Shall that name with ours