plain with spires,
And, like a ghost disshrouded, white the sea.
So may the truth be flashed out by one blow,
And Guido see; one instant, and be saved."

The whole monologue is of different order from all the others. Every one
but this expresses a more or less partial and fragmentary view. _Tertium
Quid_ alone makes any pretence at impartiality, and his is the result of
indifference, not of justice. The Pope's speech is long, slow,
discoursive, full of aged wisdom, dignity and nobility. The latter part
of it, containing some of Browning's most characteristic philosophy, is
by no means out of place, but perfectly coherent and appropriate to the
character of the speaker.

Last of all comes the second and final speech of _Guido_, "the same
man, another voice," as he "speaks and despairs, the last night of his
life," before the Cardinal Acciaiuoli and Abate Panciatichi, two old
friends, who have come to obtain his confession, absolve him, and
accompany him to the scaffold:--

"The tiger-cat screams now, that whined before,
That pried and tried and trod so gingerly,
Till in its silkiness the trap-teeth join;
Then you know how the bristling fury foams.
They listen, this wrapped in his folds of red,
While his feet fumble for the filth below;
The other, as beseems a stouter heart,
Working his best with beads and cross to ban
The enemy that come in like a flood
Spite of the standard set up, verily
And in no trope at all, against him there:
For at the prison-gate, just a few steps
Outside, already, in the doubtful dawn,
Thither, from this side and from that, slow sweep
And settle down in silence solidly,
Crow-wise, the frightful Brotherhood of Death."

We have here the completed portrait of Guido, a portrait perhaps
unsurpassed as a whole by any of Browning's studies in the complexities
of character. In his first speech he fought warily, and with delicate
skill of fence, for life. Here, says Mr. Swinburne, "a close and dumb
soul compelled into speech by mere struggle and stress of things,
labours in literal translation and accurate agony at the lips of Guido."
Hopeless, but impelled by the biting frenzy of despair, he pours out on
his awe-stricken listeners a wild flood of entreaty, defiance, ghastly
and anguished humour, flattery, satire, raving blasphemy and foaming
impenitence. His desperate venom and bla