CAIUS MARIUS.
Reading edition
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BY MRS. E. J. EAMES.
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“Man—darest thou slay Caius Marius?”
Semblance of him who at three-score-and-ten,
Bleeding and stark, chained in a dungeon lay—
Yet all untamed—whose eye flashed fire as when
The stormy fight he led in war array;
Well might the Cimbrian slave in awe start back,
Oh! fearful Roman, when he met thine eye!
Well might the Gaul, though bold, the courage lack
To consummate thy purposed destiny.
For through the dim and solemn twilight burnt
That eye—in stern and awful grandeur flashing
Its warning light on one who ne’er had learnt
Pale fear till then. Well might his sword fall clashing
At that dread voice—“Man, darest thou slay me?”
So didst thou look, and speak, and wert made free!