And thereby whet our courage if ’twere blunt?
Meantime, allow we kept the house a week,
Suppose not we were idle in our mew:
Picture Count Guido raging here and there—
“‘Money?’ I need none—‘Friends?’ The word is null.
“Match me the white was on that shield of mine (1091)
“Borne at” … wherever might be shield to bear;
“I see my grandsire, he who fought so well
“At” … here find out and put in time and place
Of what might be a fight his grandsire fought:
“I see this—I see that—”
Or I shall scarce see lamb’s fry in an hour!
—Nod to the uncle, as I bid advance
The smoking dish, “This, for your tender teeth! (1100)
“Behoves us care a little for our kin—
“You, Sir,—who care so much for cousinship
“As come to your poor loving nephew’s feast!”
He has the reversion of a long lease yet—
Land to bequeath! He loves lamb’s fry, I know!
Qualities; what Bottini needs must call
So many aggravations of our crime,
Parasite-growth upon mere murder’s back.
We summarily might dispose of such (1110)
By some off-hand and jaunty fling, some skit—
“So, since there’s proved no crime to aggravate,
“A fico for your aggravations, Fisc!”
No,—handle mischief rather,—play with spells
Were meant to raise a spirit, and laugh the while
We show that did he rise we are his match!
Therefore, first aggravation: we made up—
Over and above our simple murdering selves—
A regular assemblage of armed men,
Coadunatio armatorum,—ay, (1120)
Unluckily it was the very judge
Who sits in judgment on our cause to-day
That passed the law as Governor of Rome:
“Four men armed,”—though for lawful purpose, mark!
Much more for an acknowledged crime,—“shall die.”
We five were armed to the teeth, meant murder too?
Why, that’s the very point that saves us, Fisc!
Let me instruct you. Crime nor done nor meant,—
You punish still who arm and congregate:
For why have used bad means to a good end? (1130)
Crime being meant not done,—you punish still
The means to crime, you haply pounce upon,
Though circumstance have baulked you of their end:
But crime not only compassed but complete,
Meant and done too? Why, since you have the end,
Be that your sole concern, nor mind those means
No longer to the purpose! Murdered we?
(—Which, that our luck was in the present case,
Quod contigisse in præsenti casu,
Is palpable, manibus palpatum est—) (1140)
Make murder out against us, nothing less!
Of many crimes committed with a view
To one main crime, you overlook the less,
Intent upon the large. Suppose a man
Having in view commission of a theft,
Climb the town- wall: ’tis for the theft he hangs,
Suppose you can convict him of such theft,
Remitted whipping due to who climbs wall
For bravery or wantonness alone,
Just to dislodge a daw’s nest and no more. (1150)
So I interpret you the manly mind
Of him the Judge shall judge both you and me,—
O’ the Governor, who, being no babe, my Fisc,
Cannot have blundered on ineptitude!
Through shape or length or breadth, as, prompt, law plucks
From single hand of solitary man,
And makes him pay the carriage with his life:
Delatio armorum, arms against the rule, (1160)
Contra formam constitutionis, of
Pope Alexander’s blessed memory.
Such are the poignard with the double prong,
Horn-like, when tines make bold the antlered buck,
And all of brittle glass—for man to stab
And break off short and so let fragment stick
Fast in the flesh to baffle surgery:
And such the Genoese blade with hooks at edge
That did us service at the Villa here.
Sed parcat mihi tam eximius vir, (1170)
But, let so rare a personage forgive,
Fisc, thy objection is a foppery!
Thy charge runs, that we killed three innocents:
Killed, dost see? Then, if killed, what matter how?—
By stick or stone, by sword or dagger, tool
Long or tool short, round or triangular—
Poor folks, they find small comfort in a choice!
Means to an end, means to an end, my Fisc!
Nature cries out “Take the first arms you find!”
Furor ministrat arma: where’s a stone? (1180)
Unde mî lapidem, where darts for me?
Unde sagittas? But subdue the bard
And rationalise a little: eight months since,
Had we, or had we not, incurred your blame
For letting ’scape unpunished this bad pair?
I think I proved that in last paragraph!
Why did we so? Because our courage failed.
Wherefore? Through lack of arms to fight the foe:
We had no arms or merely lawful ones,
An unimportant sword and blunderbuss, (1190)
Against a foe, pollent in potency,
The amasius, and our vixen of a wife.
Well then, how culpably do we gird loin
And once more undertake the high emprise,
Unless we load ourselves this second time
With handsome superfluity of arms,
Since better say “too much” than “not enough,”
And “plus non vitiat,” too much does no harm,
Except in mathematics, sages say.
Gather instruction from the parable! (1200)
At first we are advised—“A lad hath here
“Seven barley loaves and two small fishes: what
“Is that among so many?” Aptly asked:
But put that question twice and, quite as apt
The answer is “Fragments, twelve baskets full!”
And, while we speak of superabundance, fling
A word by the way to fools that cast their flout
On Guido—“Punishment exceeds offence:
“You might be just but you were cruel too!”
If so you stigmatise the stern and strict,
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