Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene IL] THE DEVOTED ONE. 229
CANUTE.
No flattery now. That judge
Who fawns upon a culprit, or in aught
Seeks to extenuate his rank offence,
Because he stands pre-eminent in power,
Is most unworthy of the judgment-seat,
And basely mars his office. I demand
Your sentence on my crime.
[The Chiefs ascend the tribunal, and confer
with each other.
O, this foul deed
Bedims my glory.
All men's will
eyes
turn
To gaze upon my darkness, as they look
In fear and wonder on the noon-day sun,
When o'er his splendour shadows deep and strange
Fall, till his beams till
expire,
earth and heaven
Seem with him sinking to eternal
night.
But from this gloom my onward course I'll win,
And yet again break forth in cloudless lustre.
ULFMANDO.
My royal lord, it is our will that thou
Pass sentence on thyself.
CANUTE.
Ye know the law :
He who hath slain another, is amerced
In forty golden talents. In our judgment,
The mightier he who dares the law offend,
The deeper his offence ; and, since it is
Your will that from our lips the sentence fall,
We, as the crowned head of all the land,
Who have transgressed, amerce ourselves in twice
Two hundred talents of the purest gold.