men

Has changed his slow scythe for the two-edged sword,
And is about to take, instead of sand,
The dust from sepulchres to fill his hour-glass!
Go not thou forth to-morrow!

Lioni. Wherefore not?
What means this menace ?

Bert. Do not seek its meaning, But do as I implore thee; stir not forth, Whate'er be stirring; though the roar of crowds The cry of women, and the shrieks of babes The groans of

the clash of arms the sound Of rolling drum, shrill trump, and hollow bell, Peal in one wide alărum ! Go not forth Until the tocsin's silent, nor even then Till I return!

Lioni. Again, what does this mean?

Bert. Again I tell thee, ask not; but by all Thou holdest dear on earth, in heaven, — by all The souls of thy great fathers, and thy hope To emulate them, and to leave behind Descendants worthy both of them and thee, By all thou hast of blest in hope or memory, By all thou hast to fear here or hereafter, By all the good deeds thou hast done to me, Good I would now repay with greater good, Remain within ; trust to thy household gods, And to my word for safety, if thou dost As now I counsel, - but if not, thou art lost!

Lioni. I am, indeed, already lost in wonder;
Surely thou ravest! What have I to dread ?
Who are my foes ? Or if there be such, why
Art thou leagued with them ! thou! or if so leagued,
Why comest thou to tell me at this hour,
And not before ?

Bert. I cannot answer this.
Wilt thou go forth despite of this true warning?

Lioni. I was not born to shrink from idle threats,
The cause of which I know not: at the hour
Of council, be it soon or late, I shall not
Be found among the absent.

Bert. Say not so;
Once more, art thou determined to go forth?

Lioni. I am. Nor is there aught which shall impede me!
Bert. Then Heaven have mercy on thy soul! Farewell!

Lioni. Stay, — there is more in this than my own safety, Which makes me call thee back; we must not part thus: Bertram, I have known thee long.

Bert. From childhood, sir,
You have been my protector: in the days
Of reckless infancy, when rank forgets,
Or, rather, is not yet taught to remember
Its cold prerogative, we played together ;
Our sports, our smiles, our tears, were mingled oft ;
My father was your father's client, I
His son's scarce less than foster-brother; years
Saw us together - happy, heart-full hours !
Ah me! the difference 'twixt those hours and this !

Lioni. Bertram, 't is thou who hast forgotten them.

Bert. Nor now, nor ever; whatsoe'er betide,
I would have saved you: when to manhood's growth

and
you,

devoted to the state,
As suits your station, the more humble Bertram
Was left unto the labors of the humble,
Still

you forsook me not; and if my fortunes
Have not been towering, 't was no fault of him
Who ofttimes rescued and supported me,
When struggling with the tides of circumstance,
Which bear away the weaker: noble blood
Ne'er mantled in a nobler heart than thine
Has proved to me, the poor plebeian Bertram.
Would that thy fellow-Senators were like thee !

Lioni. Why, what hast thou to say against the Senate?
Bert. Nothing

Lioni. I know that there are angry spirits
And turbulent mutterers of stifled treason,
Who lurk in narrow places, and walk out
Muffled to whisper curses to the night ;
Disbanded soldiers, discontented ruffians,
And desperate libertines, who brawl in taverns;
Thou herdest not with such : 't is true, of late

We sprang,

I have lost sight of thee, but thou wert wont
To lead a temperate life, and break thy bread
With honest mates, and bear a cheerful aspect.
What hath come to thee? In thy hollow eye
And hueless cheek, and thine unquiet motions,
Sorrow and shame and conscience seem at war
To waste thee.

Bert. Rather shame and sorrow light
On the accursëd tyranny which rides
The very air in Venice, and makes men
Madden as in the last hours of the plague,
Which sweeps the soul deliriously from life!

Li. Some villains have been tampering with thee, Bertram ;
This is not thy old language, nor own thoughts ;
Some wretch has made thee drunk with disaffection :
But thou must not be lost so; thou wert good
And kind, and art not fit for such base acts
As vice and villainy would put thee to:
Confess, confide in me: thou know'st my nature;
What is it thou and thine are bound to do,
That I should deem thee dangerous, and keep
The house like a sick girl ?

Bert. Nay, question me no further; - minutes fly,
And thou art lost ! Thou ! my sole benefactor,
The only being who was constant to me
Through every change. Yet, make me not a traitor!
Let me save thee, but spare my honor!

Lioni. Where
Can lie the honor in a league of murder ?
And who are traitors save unto the state ?

Bert. A league is still a compact, and more binding
In honest hearts when words must stand for law ;
And in my mind, there is no traitor like
He whose domestic treason plants the poniard
Within the breast which trusted to his truth.

Lioni. And who will strike the steel to mine?

Bert. Not I;
I could have wound my soul up to all things
Save this. Thou must not die! and think how dear
Thy life is, when I risk so many lives !

Nay, more, the life of lives, the liberty
Of future generations, not to be
The assassin thou miscall'st me; once, once more,
I do adjure thee, pass not o'er thy threshold !
Lioni. It is in vain: this moment I

go

forth. Bert. Then perish Venice rather than my friend ! I will disclose ensnare betray destroy O, what a villain I become for thee !

obliged to concen'trate power and weaken liberty in order to resist the ambition and the jealousy of their neighbors.

2. The United States had no large permanent army, no military marine; the immense sums that Europeans spend to keep off or to sustain war, the Americans employed in opening schools and giving to all citizens, poor or well off, that education and instruction which make the moral greatness and true riches of a people. Their foreign policy was contained in a single maxim: “ Never to mix in the quarrels of Europe, on the single condition that Europe should not mingle in their affairs and should respect the freedom of the sea.”

3. Thanks to these wise principles, which Washing, ton had bequeathed to them in his immortal testament, the United States have enjoyed, during eighty years, a peace which has been only once disturbed, - in 1812, when they were compelled to resist England, in support of the rights of neutrals. It is by thousands of millions that we must count the sums that during seventy years we of France have employed in maintaining our liberty or our preponderance in Europe; such millions the United States have employed in social improvements of every kind. Here is the secret of their prodigious success; their isolation has made their prosperity.

4. Suppose now that a separation should be made, and that the new Confederation should embrace all the Slave States; the North would lose in a day its power and its institutions. The republic would be struck to the heart. There would be in America two nations face to face; two people, rivals, and always upon the eve of combat. Peace, in fact, would not destroy enmities; the remembrances of past grandeur, of the destroyed Union, would not be effaced; the victorious South would certainly be no less the friend of slavery, no less a lover of domination. The enemies of slavery, masters of their own policy, would not certainly be quieted by the separation.