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CANTO THE SECONDIX
Throughout that clime the feudal chiefs had gain`d
Such sway, their infant monarch hardly reign`d;
Now was the hour for faction`s rebel growth,
The serfs contemn`d the one, and hated both:
They waited but a leader, and they found
One to their cause inseparably bound;
By circumstance compell`d to plunge again,
In self-defence, amidst the strife of men.
Cut off by some mysterious fate from those
Whom birth and nature meant not for his foes,
Had Lara from that night, to him accurst,
Prepared to meet, but not alone, the worst:
Some reason urged, whate`er it was, to shun
Inquiry into deeds at distance done;
By mingling with his own the cause of all,
E`en if he fail`d, he still delay`d his fall.
The sullen calm that long his bosom kept,
The storm that once had spent itself and slept,
Roused by events that seem`d foredoom`d to urge
His gloomy fortunes to their utmost verge,
Burst forth, and made him all he once had been,
And is again; he only changed the scene.
Light care had he for life, and less for fame,
But not less fitted for the desperate game:
He deem`d himself mark`d out for others` hate,
And mock`d at ruin, so they shared his fate.
What cared he for the freedom of the crowd?
He raised the humble but to bend the proud.
He had hoped quiet in his sullen lair,
But man and destiny beset him there:
Inured to hunters, he was found at bay;
And they must kill, they cannot snare the prey.
Stern, unambitious, silent he had been
Henceforth a calm spectator of life`s scene;
But dragg`d again upon the arena, stood
A leader not unequal to the feud;
In voice — mien — gesture — savage nature spoke,
And from his eye the gladiator broke.
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