lverins upon the walls,
And harquebusses, and what not; besides
The men who are to kindle them to death
Of other men.

_Arn._ And those scarce mortal arches,[232]
Pile above pile of everlasting wall, 50
The theatre where Emperors and their subjects
(Those subjects _Romans_) stood at gaze upon
The battles of the monarchs of the wild
And wood--the lion and his tusky rebels
Of the then untamed desert, brought to joust
In the arena--as right well they might,
When they had left no human foe unconquered--
Made even the forest pay its tribute of
Life to their amphitheatre, as well
As Dacia men to die the eternal death 60
For a sole instant's pastime, and "Pass on
To a new gladiator!"--Must it fall?

_Caes._ The city, or the amphitheatre?
The church, or one, or all? for you confound
Both them and me.

_Arn._ To-morrow sounds the assault
With the first cock-crow.

_Caes._ Which, if it end with
The evening's first nightingale, will be
Something new in the annals of great sieges;
For men must have their prey after long toil.

_Arn._ The sun goes down as calmly, and perhaps 70
More beautifully, than he did on Rome
On the day Remus leapt her wall.

_Caes._ I saw him.

_Arn._ You!

_Caes._ Yes, Sir! You forget I am or was
Spirit, till I took up with your cast shape,
And a worse name. I'm Caesar and a hunch-back
Now. Well! the first of Caesars was a bald-head,
And loved his laurels better as a wig
(So history says) than as a glory.[233] Thus
The world runs on, but we'll be merry still.
I saw your Romulus (simple as I am) 80
Slay his own twin, quick-born of the same womb,
Because he leapt a ditch ('twas then no wall,
Whate'er it now be); and Rome's earliest cement
Was brother's blood; and if its native blood
Be spilt till the choked Tiber be as red
As e'er 'twas yellow, it will never wear
The deep hue of the Ocean and the Earth,
Which the great robber sons of fratricide
Have made their never-ceasing scene of slaughter,
For ages.

_Arn._ But what have these done, their far 90
Remote descendants, who have lived in