Flac. Is this to be endur'd? Could Caius brook it?

I have no blood of his within my veins,

And yet they boil!

Marc. Had he but spoke the word,

He should have been aveng'd. "He rail'd at us.-Come, Let us follow him!

Tit. Hold, for the common cause!

Marc. The common cause were serv'd by any hurt that

We could do Opimius. He's a tyrant!

Flac. The worst of tyrants!

Marc. Come, let's follow him, and rid our country of a Tyrant !

Tit. Stay!-How are we prepar'd for such a thing? Remember, too, it is the time of sacrifice.

Flac. Caius was tame to bear it." See, he returns, And chafing like a flood from its embankment New burst.

Re-enter CAIUS GRACCHUS, R.

C. Grac. Endure a life on sufferance

[Crosses to L.-The Citizens get round to R. Like this! Why, you must think me water, friends, Or something farther still remov'd from blood"If there's such poverty in nature-that

I seem to have no proper heat in me,"

To keep cool veins under the force of that
Whose only sight, I see, sets your's a-boiling.
Marc. Let's follow him, and rid our country of

A tyrant.

C. Grac. [Rushes before them.] No!

Tit. Here comes his Lictor with

The entrails.

Enter Lictor, with the entrails, L. U. E.

Lictor. Way there, evil citizens !

Tit. Down with him! "Tis an evil word for him.
Citizens. Down with him!

[They follow him off, L. U. E.

C. Grac. Hold! Hold! Come back-my friends

my countrymen !

You know not

[A loud groan, L. U. E.

Tit. [Returns with a bloody dagger.] You are re

venged! He's dead!

C. Grac. Blood shed!-Blood is not washed away,

except

You should not do?

With blood! [The people return slowly and sullenly.
Why did you this? Why do you ever that
Who bade you take my quarrel
Into your own hands? Who? I did not ask you
For help or counsel! Gods! if I do choose
To stake my life, may I not fix the game

I throw't away on? Had I not here the tyrant
Himself, within arm's reach," that but a stride
Like this, had made my weapon and his heart
Acquainted? Had I not? If I did think
A gust of spleen, a fit of temper, a

Sour stomach, was a thing to pitch against
The cause"-had I not man enough in me,
Though thrice the number of his satellites
Environ'd him, to smite him to my foot?

And you must smite his slave! Now, look you, for
That slave, the stones we tread on shall weep blood,
And our veins lend the tears!

Flac. Remember, 'twas

For you they did it.

C. Grac. Me? O! I retain

The memory of all they have done for me!

"Flac. Observe their looks.-They are depress'd and spiritless

From your rebuke. It is not well to bring

Their zeal to such an ebb.

C. Grac. It is indeed

The tide for ebbing." Listen! [Thunder.] Do you

hear?

Tit. The heavens lower

"C. Grac. On us! There is something awful in their speech,

More than the sound. [Thunder.] That's anger!

Enter VETTIUS, hastily, L. U. E.

Vet. Disperse! Disperse! [FULVIUS and half the Citizens cross behind to R.] The Consul heavily Has ta'en his Lictor's death. The Senate

Is convoked.

[Thunders louder. Several of the people withdraw R. and L. slowly.

C. Grac. Now it speaks out. ""Tis not for naught They keep that stirring in the heavens. Some foot, On haste with wrath, hath from Jove's presence now Gone forth, the bearer of an errand, whose Dread import hath set all Olympus shaking!"

Flac. You are infusing fear into the crowd.
This is ro way to remedy the evil.
Think what can best be done.

C. Grac. Nothing is best
Where nothing can be done.

Flac. Here comes your brother.

Enter LICINIUS, hastily, L. U. E.

Licin. A decree has pass'd the Senate, that the Consul

Look to the public safety. Caius, you

And Fulvius Flaccus are the men they aim at

You must protect yourselves! [Thunders still louder. Flac. Observe, the citizens fall off from us.

[TITUS and VETTIUS cross behind to R. C. Grac. Why, let them go! As long as our veins are full,

Why should their's flow? Let them fall off to one-
To none! "Their carrion would but poison Rome,
And breed a mortal, general pestilence!"

Let them, I say! It shall be writ in blood,
The man who labours for the people's good
The people shall give up to sacrifice!

So shall their groans unpitied rend their breasts—
Unheeded, save of them whose ears confess

No sweeter music! Here, even at the foot
Of my great father's statue, I will brave

The tyrant's wrath alone!

[Goes and kneels at his father's statue, hiding his face with his hands.

Flac. What! hold your neck

To the axe!

Enter POMPONIUS, hastily, L. U. E.

Pom. Caius, the Consul's Lictors, I'm advis'd,

Are on the watch for you.

Flac. Meet force with force!

[The Citizens return in larger numbers, R. and L. The people throng to you again. 'Twas but

The storm dispersed them.

Licin. Gracchus, Caius Gracchus,

If you're a man, act like one. Keep not terms
With men do make the laws a plea for acts
The laws forbid. The Senate is the traitor.
Think, in its bloody edict you are led

Already to the slaughter. Caius, 'tis

Your country calls on you!

Pom. With tears.

Flac. With wrongs.

Licin. Tiberius calls on you.

C. Grac. Give me your hands.

"Tis done, my friends-'tis past!-I will. [Very low thunder.] You hear?

Great Jove! Our fates command us!
Flac. Muster, friends,

Betimes to-morrow on Mount Aventine.

،، We've scanty time for preparation." Night
Draws on apace. Some of you keep a watch
Near Caius's house, lest, in the dead of night,
They steal upon him. Caius, fare thee well!
We meet to-morrow.

C. Grac. I will meet thee, Flaccus.
But let not the first blow be ours.

"Flac. It cannot.

They strike already, that do draw on us.'

C. Grac. Against myself, I pledge myself.-O, Rome, The sons do love thee most, must make thee bleed! [Exeunt, severally.

"SCENE IV.-An Apartment in Caius's House.— A Couch.

Enter CORNELIA, and LICINIA with a scroll; followed by Lucius, carrying lights, one of which he sets down.

Cor. Will you not go to bed?
Licinia. Not till he comes.

Cor. He must sup out.

Licinia. Well, I'll sit up for him.

Cor. What, with those eyes that look so ill prepar'd

To play the watcher?

Licinia. I will read, Cornelia,

And keep myself awake.-I can't lie down!

Go you to bed, my mother.

Cor. I'll not give you

Excuse for so uncall'd-for labour, by

Partaking it.-Good night.

Licinia. Good night. [Exit CORNELIA and LUCIUS. I wish

He would come home!-Why should he sup abroad

10

To night? Most like it is my brother's fault.
He never lets him rest with taking him

To Carbo's house-or Flaccus's-or to some
Such place. I would he had a wife himself,
To keep him more at home.-Cornelia's right;
I'm half asleep already.-A heavy lid

Is strange companion to an anxious heart!
Come thou that canst discourse without a tongue,
Cunning beguiler of the lonely! talk to me,
And for my dear lord, help me to keep watch!

[She sits down and reads-grows gradually drow-
sier-the scroll presently falls from her hand,
and she sleeps.

Enter CAIUS, without seeing her.

C. Grac. What meant the boy by starting when he
let

Me in ?-What's in my face, to make him hold
His breath, and change his colour at? I thought
At first the house was not my own-and never
Look'd it so like my own.-A hundred objects,
Day after day I've pass'd, with just as much
Of consciousness as they had not been here,
I now distinguish with a feeling of
Such recognition, as invests them with

The worth of precious things.-The common couch
Stands in our supper-room, a dozen times

A day I've thrown myself upon, without

Thought it supported me-when now I pass'd it,
I could not help but stop, as it had been
Some special minister of happiness
Did challenge salutation.-

What?-Licinia!→

Asleep too. She is sitting up for me!
Come now, conspiracy, thou bold redresser

Of grievances, dost doubly stake thy life

Thou wilt achieve beneath the peaceful brows

Of the household eaves, that never thought to see it,
What were done better in the stony eyes

Of frowning battlements-and lead along

The streets, where children, wives, and matrons tread, Mar's revels, fitter to be acted on

Some far removed, unfrequented waste ;---
Come now, and while the silken bands of sleep
Hold thy unconscious, unoffending victim,
Look on, and scan thy plea of conjuration,
And see if it be proof.Thou canst not do it!