To give my country freedom; let me die
To save her blood!

Enter LICINIus, R,

Licin. Where are your swords, my friends?
Do they become their scabbards or your hands,
When tyranny's so near?-Unsheath, I say,
And show their honest faces to our foes,
And make the knaves to blush.

C. Gruc. Draw off our friends.

I'll meet them singly!

Licin. Never!

We'll live or die together!-Or, take your course-
Yield yourself to the tyrant if you will;

My sword is out and shall not quit my grasp,

So long as it can strike a link away

From the vile chains that gall us.-Leave
Desert us-fly us-carry with thee half

us, Caius !

Our strength, with the remaining half we'll struggle,
Nor vilely live the thralls of tyranny!

C. Grac. O Rome, my country!-O my mother,
Rome !

Is it to shed thy blood I draw my sword?
To fill thy matrons' and thy daughters' eyes
With tears, and drain the spirits of thy sons?
Should I not rather turn it 'gainst myself,
And, by the timely sacrifice of one

Preserve the many.-They will not let me do it;
They take from me the rule of mine own acts,
And make me freedom's slave! What! Is it so?

Come, then, the only virtue that is left me.
The fatal virtue of necessity.

Upon them!

Give them stout hearts, ye gods, to enable them
To stand the flashing of their tyrants' swords;
Deaf to the din of battle let them be;

Senseless to wounds, and without eyes for blood;
That, for this once, they may belie themselves,
Make tyranny to cower, and from her yoke
Lift prostrate liberty to fall no more!

[Exeunt, R.

SCENE III.-The Inside of the Temple of Diana.The Statue of the Goddess in centre.-LICINIA kneeling R. of it.-A large Portal R. U. E.-Numbers of Women who have fled thither for safety.—Among the rest, CORNELIA, LICINIA, LIVIA, LUCILLA, (Attendant with Caius's Child), and LUCIUS.

Cor. Go, boy; look out and tell me what thou see'st;

If all is quiet, run to the end of the street

"But venture not beyond"-and listen if

Thou hear'st the sound of tumult. Use thy senses,
And hurry back when they do gather for thee
Aught worth the bringing.-Hasten now-" and for
Thy life, break not thy bounds.-Away."

Livia. [R. To another.] Observe

[Exit LUCIUS, r.

Cornelia! Now what kind of soul is hers,
That in this hour of trembling can be calm

"As nought but common things were passing round her?"

But note her!

Cor. (c.) Livia, you did say, just now,

Your brother told you there had come a herald

Proposing terms of peace!

Livia. He did; but thought

They would not be accepted.

Cor, He thought right!

No more they will. Õpimius hath the gust
Too strong for blood, when he hath snuff'd it, not
'To taste. He'll lap it! matters not whose veins
"Twill cost the emptying of, so they belong
To honest men.-Then will he offer sacrifice!
O man! man! man!-most sacrilegious and
Profane!-that with thy lips dost laud the gods
Whose ordinance thou tearest with thy hands!
"The path to whom thou hast with peril so
Beset, that he who seeks may find it out
By good men's graves at many a spot, whereon
They did untimely fall!-Why clasp you me,
My Livia?

Livia. Do you hear the clash of swords.

Cor. Indeed I do not! "Tis your fancy, Livia.
Livia. Nay, 'tis your talking of men's graves.
Cor. Men's graves

Are but men's beds!-whereon we lay them-not

3

For one hard day of toil to follow on
Another! Thankless labour, Livia !-Sweat,
To him expends it profitless-that goes
To nourish others, and they take, as though
The using were a boon!"-How fares it with
Licinia?

Livia. All abstracted, as she were

Alive to nought " without her.—I can draw
No word nor sign from her." There kneels she to
The statue of the goddess, mute as silence,
"And in so fixed stillness, you might ask,
Which is the marble?"

Soldier. [Without, R.] Way there!-let me in!
Cor. Don't shut the gates, but let him in..
Livia. Who is it?

Cor. One is wounded from the fray,

Sure sign it has commenc'd!

He has gone near it!

Livia. And thou hast a son

Is in it!

Cor. I fear not what I do know,

I fear for Lucius.

How much soe'er I feel it.-Livia! Livia!

I'm a mother, though I do not wail

To let you know it. [Enter LUCIUS, R.] Now, Sir! where have you been?

Finely you've mark'd my orders! Tell me what
You've seen and heard?

Luc. The battle is begun.

Cor. I know it already! Can you tell which side

Is like to win?

Luc. The citizens, they say,

Give ground.

Livia. They do!

Cor. I could have told it you

Without the aid of augury !-How learn'd

You this?

Luc. From some did carry to his house

The young Valerius, wounded mortally

Him they do call the comeliest youth in Rome.

"Cor. That's right.-You speak not out of breath,

as though

The house were on fire." Valerius, say you?

Luc. Yes.

I did not know him when I saw him, so

His face was gash'd.

G

Yourself a man! You have been nearer to

The fray than you like to tell. You're a fine boy!" What rush of feet is that? Go see.

[Exit LUCIUS, and presently returns R.

Luc. The citizens

Fly every way-and from the windows and

The houses' top, the women look, and wring
Their hands; and wail-and clamour.-Listen! you
Will hear them.

Cor. I can hear them without ears.

C. Grac. [Without.] Shut to the gates! [Exit Luc.
Licinia. [Starting up.] 'Tis Caius !

C. Grac. [Still without.] Thankless hearts!
Not one presents himself to aid my sword;
Or lend a charger to assist my flight;

But, as I were a racer in the games,

They cry,

"make haste!" and shout, as I pass by! [Enters.] May they remain the abject things they are, Begging their daily pittance from the hands

Of tyrant lords that spurn them.-May they crawl

Ever in bondage and in misery,

And never know the blessed rights of freemen!

Here will I perish!

Licinia. [Rushing up to him.] Caius !

C. Grac. (c.) My Licinia!

My mother too!

Licinia. (L.) Why should you perish?-Fly, And save your life, my Caius! Fly.-A steedA steed! There are a hundred ways to save Your life; take one of them, my Caius.

Cor. (R.) If

There's any hope, my son.

C. Grac. My child too!

Tit. [Entering.] Caius !

Caius, remain not here! Pomponius and

Licinius, striving to keep back the Consul,

And give you time for flight, have fallen beneath

His hirelings' blows.-They have the scent of you.
Another moment's pause, and you are lost.

Cor. Make the attempt, my son!

Licinia. Fly!-Fly!

Luc. [Entering.] It is

Too late.

Cor. Embrace me, Caius !-O my son, The gods do bare no sword 'gainst virtue ! C. Grac. No!

No, mother!" My Licinia! Give me my child." Mother, be you a parent to my wife,

[Aside to CORNELIA.

A tutor to my child. The lessons you

Did make me con, teach him; none else-he cannot

C. Grac. Now thee !-[Embraces her.] Licinia. Away!-What's that you feel for, Caius, Under your robe?

C. Grac. Nothing, love, nothing. - Rome! O Rome!

dagger drops from beneath CAIUS's robe.-He falls dead.-LICINIA throws herself on the body. CORNELIA, with difficulty, supports herself.The Consul and his troops are heard approaching. She makes a violent effort to recover her self-possession; snatches CAIUS's Child from the Attendant, and holds it in one arm, while with the other she points to CAIUS; confronts OPIMIUS and the rest, who, immediately upon entering, stop short.-The Curtain drops.

Flourish till the Curtain is quite down.

THE END.