Britain ... - Blue-Lite

396 THE VARANGIAN. [Act V.
turn yet and stand
Turn, ere it be too late,
With me your leader, for your country stand,
And make one last great effort in the cause
Of liberty and ! England Know ye not
That on you now your country's eyes are fixt,
This day her masterdom o'er Norman power
Expecting from ? your courage that Renown
On yonder mountain waits with her loud trump
Your honour to proclaim where'er the name
Of Saxon has been heard, and on the car
Of ever-rolling Time your patriot deeds
In sunbeams to inscribe ? But ye are fallen,
How basely fallen ! from your allegiance sworn
To him your true-born and anointed King.
All evil things incurable alight
On every recreant, and the eternal curse
Of infamy rest on his unwept grave !
KING.
Thou art the leader of those pirate hordes,
Chief of a dark and hidden conspiracy,
Extended through the land. Yield, and for thee
Mercy may
be in store.
HERKWARD.
Mercy ? where was thy mercy, tyrant, when
Thy Norman robbers drove my widowed mother
From her domains and home, usurping all
Her fair inheritance ? Where was thy mercy
When, overwhelmed by numbers I embarked
To seek in distant lands a soldier's fame,
Thy plundering Barons fired the noble towers
Of my ancestral dwelling ? Still I see,
Crimsoning the lurid heavens, those flames ascend
As on my vessel's deck I stood, and vowed