Elsewhere," said Ferragon ; " not here nor now.
We gave thee licence, and we grant it still.
To take a plunder : look around and choose
What trading port, what dealers' burgh ye will,
We give it, and will help you to the gain."
" We gave thee licence," Lomna said, — " and I
Grieve that we gave it, yea, or took the like, —
To take a plunder ; but we gave thee not
Licence to take the life, the soul itself
Of our whole nation, as you now would do
For, slay our reverend sages of the law,
Slay him who puts the law they teach in act ;
Slay our sweet poets, and our sacred bards,
Who keep the continuity of time
By fame perpetual of renowned deeds ;
Slay our experienced captains who prepare
The youth for martial manhood, and the charge
Of public freedom, as befits a state
Self-governed, self-sufficing, self-contained ;
Slay all that minister our loftier life,
Now by this evil chance assembled here,
You leave us but the carcass of a state,
A rabble ripe to rot, and yield the land
To foreign masters and perpetual shame."
Said Ingcel, " This night's plunder is my own,
And paid for. I shall take it here and now.
I heed not Lomna's airy rhetoric ;
But this I say, and mark it, Ferragon :
Let him who would turn craven, if he will,
Take up his stone and go : and take withal
Contempt of valiant men."
Said Lomna Druth,
" He is no craven, Ingcel ; nor am I.
