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death-red square

       Sick Fancy groan’d o’er putrid hills of slain,

       Didst thou not fiercely laugh, and bless the day? 175

       Why, thou hast been the mouth-piece of all horrors,

       And, like a bloodhound, crouch’d for murder! Now

       Aloof thou standest from the tottering pillar,

       Or, like a frighted child behind its mother,

       Hidest thy pale face in the skirts of — Mercy! 180

      Barrere. O prodigality of eloquent anger!

       Why now I see thou’rt weak — thy case is desperate!

       The cool ferocious Robespierre turn’d scolder!

      Robespierre. Who from a bad man’s bosom wards the blow

       Reserves the whetted dagger for his own. 185

       Denounced twice — and twice I saved his life! [Exit.

      Barrere. The sections will support them — there’s the point!

       No! he can never weather out the storm —

       Yet he is sudden in revenge — No more!

       I must away to Tallien. [Exit. 190

      SCENE changes to the house of ADELAIDE.

      ADELAIDE enters, speaking to a Servant.

      Adelaide. Didst thou present the letter that I gave thee?

       Did Tallien answer, he would soon return?

      Servant. He is in the Thuilleries — with him Legendre —

       In deep discourse they seem’d: as I approach’d

       He waved his hand as bidding me retire: 195

       I did not interrupt him. [Returns the letter.

      Adelaide. Thou didst rightly. [Exit Servant.

       O this new freedom! at how dear a price

       We’ve bought the seeming good! The peaceful virtues

       And every blandishment of private life,

       The father’s cares, the mother’s fond endearment, 200

       All sacrificed to liberty’s wild riot.

       The wingéd hours, that scatter’d roses round me,

       Languid and sad drag their slow course along,

       And shake big gall-drops from their heavy wings.

       But I will steal away these anxious thoughts 205

       By the soft languishment of warbled airs,

       If haply melodies may lull the sense

       Of sorrow for a while. [Soft music.

      Enter TALLIEN.

      Tallien. Music, my love? O breathe again that air!

       Soft nurse of pain, it sooths the weary soul 210

       Of care, sweet as the whisper’d breeze of evening

       That plays around the sick man’s throbbing temples.

      SONG

      Tell me, on what holy ground

       May domestic peace be found?

       Halcyon daughter of the skies, 215

       Far on fearful wing she flies,

       From the pomp of scepter’d state,

       From the rebel’s noisy hate.

      In a cottag’d vale she dwells

       List’ning to the Sabbath bells! 220

       Still around her steps are seen,

       Spotless honor’s meeker mien,

       Love, the sire of pleasing fears,

       Sorrow smiling through her tears,

       And conscious of the past employ, 225

       Memory, bosom-spring of joy.

      Tallien. I thank thee, Adelaide! ‘twas sweet, though mournful.

       But why thy brow o’ercast, thy cheek so wan?

       Thou look’st as a lorn maid beside some stream

       That sighs away the soul in fond despairing, 230

       While sorrow sad, like the dank willow near her,

       Hangs o’er the troubled fountain of her eye.

      Adelaide. Ah! rather let me ask what mystery lowers

       On Tallien’s darken’d brow. Thou dost me wrong —

       Thy soul distemper’d, can my heart be tranquil? 235

      Tallien. Tell me, by whom thy brother’s blood was spilt?

       Asks he not vengeance on these patriot murderers?

       It has been borne too tamely. Fears and curses

       Groan on our midnight beds, and e’en our dreams

       Threaten the assassin hand of Robespierre. 240

       He dies! — nor has the plot escaped his fears.

      Adelaide. Yet — yet — be cautious! much I fear the Commune —

       The tyrant’s creatures, and their fate with his

       Fast link’d in close indissoluble union.

       The pale Convention —

      Tallien. Hate him as they fear him, 245

       Impatient of the chain, resolv’d and ready.

      Adelaide. Th’ enthusiast mob, confusion’s lawless sons —

      Tallien. They are aweary of his stern morality,

       The fair-mask’d offspring of ferocious pride.

       The sections too support the delegates: 250

       All — all is ours! e’en now the vital air

       Of Liberty, condens’d awhile, is bursting

       (Force irresistible!) from its compressure —

       To shatter the arch chemist in the explosion!

      Enter BILLAUD VARENNES and BOURDON L’OISE.

      [ADELAIDE retires.

      Bourdon l’Oise. Tallien! was this a time for amorous

       conference? 255

       Henriot, the tyrant’s most devoted creature,

       Marshals the force of Paris: The fierce Club,

       With Vivier at their head, in loud acclaim

       Have sworn to make the guillotine in blood

       Float on the scaffold. — But who comes here? 260

      Enter BARRERE abruptly.

      Barrere. Say, are ye friends to freedom? I am her’s!

       Let us, forgetful of all common feuds,

       Rally around her shrine! E’en now the tyrant

       Concerts a plan of instant massacre!

      Billaud Varennes. Away to the Convention! with that voice 265

       So oft the herald of glad victory,

       Rouse their fallen spirits, thunder in their ears

       The names of tyrant, plunderer, assassin!

       The violent workings of my soul within

       Anticipate the monster’s blood! 270

      [Cry from the street of — No Tyrant! Down with the Tyrant!

      Tallien. Hear ye that outcry? — If the trembling members

       Even for a moment hold his fate suspended,

      

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