18. 
’Fear not the future, weep not for the past. 
Oh, could I win your ears to dare be now
Glorious, and great, and calm! that ye would cast 4380
Into the dust those symbols of your woe,
Purple, and gold, and steel! that ye would go
Proclaiming to the nations whence ye came,
That Want, and Plague, and Fear, from slavery flow;
And that mankind is free, and that the shame 4385
Of royalty and faith is lost in freedom’s fame!

19. 
’If thus, ’tis well—­if not, I come to say
That Laon—­’ while the Stranger spoke, among
The Council sudden tumult and affray
Arose, for many of those warriors young, 4390
Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung
Like bees on mountain-flowers; they knew the truth,
And from their thrones in vindication sprung;
The men of faith and law then without ruth
Drew forth their secret steel, and stabbed each ardent youth. 4395

20. 
They stabbed them in the back and sneered—­a slave
Who stood behind the throne, those corpses drew
Each to its bloody, dark, and secret grave;
And one more daring raised his steel anew
To pierce the Stranger.  ’What hast thou to do 4400
With me, poor wretch?’—­Calm, solemn and severe,
That voice unstrung his sinews, and he threw
His dagger on the ground, and pale with fear,
Sate silently—­his voice then did the Stranger rear.

21. 
’It doth avail not that I weep for ye—­ 4405
Ye cannot change, since ye are old and gray,
And ye have chosen your lot—­your fame must be
A book of blood, whence in a milder day
Men shall learn truth, when ye are wrapped in clay: 
Now ye shall triumph.  I am Laon’s friend, 4410
And him to your revenge will I betray,
So ye concede one easy boon.  Attend! 
For now I speak of things which ye can apprehend.

22. 
’There is a People mighty in its youth,
A land beyond the Oceans of the West, 4415
Where, though with rudest rites, Freedom and Truth
Are worshipped; from a glorious Mother’s breast,
Who, since high Athens fell, among the rest
Sate like the Queen of Nations, but in woe,
By inbred monsters outraged and oppressed, 4420
Turns to her chainless child for succour now,
It draws the milk of Power in Wisdom’s fullest flow.

23. 
’That land is like an Eagle, whose young gaze
Feeds on the noontide beam, whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze 4425
Of sunrise gleams when Earth is wrapped in gloom;
An epitaph of glory for the tomb
Of murdered Europe may thy fame be made,
Great People! as the sands shalt thou become;
Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade; 4430
The multitudinous Earth shall sleep beneath thy shade.