Ye hills fall prostrate, and ye vales arise! Methinks I hear the bellowing demagogue Where pompous jargon fills the place of strength; With loud theatric rage, bombards the sense; Exasperated metaphors convey. With these auxiliaries, drawn up at large, He bids enraged sedition beat the charge; Rebellion wakes, impatient of delay, The signal her black ensigns to display.* To thee, whose soul, all steadfast and serene, And, in the calmer seats of wisdom placed, Luca Pitt continued at Florence, presuming upon his late alliance, and the promises which Pietro had made him. . . . But amongst all the changes that ensued upon this revolution, nothing was more remarkable than the case of Luca Pitt, who soon began to experience the difference betwixt prosperity and adversity, betwixt living in authority and falling into disgrace. His house, which used to be crowded with swarms of followers and dependants, was now as unfrequented as a desert; and his friends and relations were not only afraid of being seen with him, but durst not even salute him if they met him in the street; some of them having been deprived of their honours, others of their estates, and all of them threatened. The magnificent palaces which he had begun to build were abandoned by the workmen; the services he had formerly done to any one were requited with injuries and abuse; and the nonours he had conferred, with infamy and taunts. Many who had made him valuable presents, now came to demand them again, as only lent; and others, who before used to flatter and extol him to the skies, in these circumstances, loaded him with contumely, and reproaches of ingratitude and violence; so that he heartily repented, though too late, that he had not followed Nicolo Soderini's advice, and preferred an honourable death to a ife of ignominy and contempt.-Mach. Hist. Flor. In her fond breast no prostituted aim, Nor venal hope, assumes fair friendship's name. Darkling to grope and flounce in error's night, Where contemplation spreads her awful shade; May Heaven desert me at my latest hour! And throb with irresistible alarms. Like some full river charged with falling showers, Still o'er my breast her swelling deluge pours. But rest and silence now, who wait beside, With their strong flood-gates bar the impetuous tide. A POEM SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS FROM the big horror of war's hoarse alarms, While, with sad notes, I strike the trembling lyre! Melt as they move, and fill each heart with woe; By awe, here, is meant attention. And hoarser winds howl murmuring through the grove Where some unhappy wretch aye mourns his doom, Deep melancholy wandering through the gloom; Where solitude and meditation roam, And where no dawning glimpse of hope can come. To speak to none but with the mighty dead; Hard fate! then, noble Frederic, didst thou die: The approaching summer ne'er on earth to see; Ye powers, and must a prince so noble die. |