Book 8
'We have offence which by the sword alone
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' Can find its condonation, in that we
'By thy persuasion from the Senate gained
'This our dominion. By our prayers we helped
' If not by arms thy cause. This sword, which fate
' Bids us make ready, not for thee I hold
' Prepared, but for the vanquished; and thy heart
'(I had preferred thy kinsman's) shall I pierce:
' For to his side, as all things, are we borne.
' And dost thou doubt, since thou art in my power,
'Thou art my victim? By what trust in us
'Cam'st thou, unhappy? Scarce our people tills
' The fields, though softened by the refluent Nile:
' Know well our strength, and know we can no more.
'Rome 'neath the ruin of Pompeius lies:
'Shalt thou, O king, uphold him? Shalt thou dare
' To stir Pharsalia's ashes and to call
' War to thy kingdom? Ere the fight was fought
' We joined not either army-shall we now
' Make Magnus friend whom all the world deserts?
'And fling a challenge to the conquering chief
'And all his proud successes? Fair is help
'Lent in disaster, yet reserved for those
'Whom fortune favours. Faith her friends selects
The crime's accomplishment. Proud is the boy king
Of such unwonted honour, that his slaves
So soon give power for so great a deed.
They choose Achillas for the work of death;
And where the treacherous shore in Casian sands
Runs out, and shallow waters of the sea
Attest the Syrtes near, in little boat
He and his partners in the monstrous crime
With swords embark. Ye gods! and shall the Nile
And barbarous Memphis and th' effeminate crew
That throngs Pelusian Canopus raise
Its thoughts to such an enterprise? Do thus
Our fates press on the world? Is Rome thus fallen
That in our civil frays the Pharian sword
