Kitap 5
'And shrunken arms, once stalwart! In thy wars
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'Gone is the strength of life, gone all its pride!
'Dismiss thine aged soldiers to their deaths.
'How shameless is our prayer! Not on hard turf
'To stretch our dying limbs; nor seek in vain,
' When parts the soul, a hand to close our eyes;
'Not with the helm to strike the stony ground:Reading galeam, with Francken, not glebam.
' Rather to feel the dear one's last embrace,
' And gain a humble but a separate tomb.
'Let sickness end old age. If Caesar's slaves,
' Let something more than battle be our doom.
' Deem'st thou we are thy dupes? that we alone
' In civil war are ignorant what crime
' Will fetch the highest price? What thou canst dare
' These years have proved, or nothing; law divine
' Nor human ordinance shall hold thine hand.
'He was our leader on the banks of Rhine;
' Now is our equal; for the stain of crime
' Makes all men like. And for a judge ingrate
' We waste our valour; for as fortune's gift
' He takes the victory which our arms have won:
'But we his fortunes are, his fates are ours
'To fashion as we will. Boast that the gods
' Shall do thy bidding! Nay, thy soldiers' will
' Shall close the war.' With threatening mien and speech
Thus through the camp the troops demand their chief.
When faith and loyalty are fled, and hope
For aught but evil, thus may civil war
In mutiny and discord find its end!
What general had not feared at such revolt?
But mighty Caesar trusting on the throw,Montaigne (Book I., cap. 23) compares Caesar with Louis XI., 'the most mistrustful of our kings,' who committed his life and liberty into his enemies' hands in order to show his absolute confidence in them.
As was his wont, his fortune, and o'erjoyed
To front their anger raging at its height
Unflinching comes. No temples of the gods,
Not Jove's high fane on the Tarpeian rock,
Not Rome's high dames nor maidens had he grudged
To their most savage lust: that they should ask
The worst, his wish, and love the spoils of war.
Nor feared he aught save order at the hands
Of that unconquered host. Art thou not shamed
