Why trouble lives that tranquil are? Before you came we fed in peace Our flocks and reaped our fields' increase. What to the Germans have you taught? Courageous they and quick of thought, Had avarice been their only aim, They might have played a different game, And now have held the world in chains; But, ah! believe me, they would not Have scourged your race with needless pains, Had victory been now their lot. The cruelties by your prefects wrought Can scarce be ever borne in thought; Us e'en your Roman altars scare, For your gods eyes are everywhere. The gods, alas! 'Tis thanks to you That nought but horror meets their view, That they themselves are scoffed and jeered at, And all but avarice is sneered at. Of all the cruel men you sent To rule our towns, not one's content. They seize our lands, they make us toil, And e'en our little huts they spoil. Oh, call them back. Our boors refuse To till the fields for others' use. We quit our homes, and to the mountains fly, No tender wife now bears us company; With wolves and bears we pass our lives away, For who would children rear for Rome to slay? And, oh! the terrors of your prefects bring One added horror; for a hateful thing, Unknown before, has now spread far and wide Throughout our native land--Infanticide! Call back your men, or else the German race From day to day in vice will grow apace. But why should I come here to make appeal? The self-same vices spoil your commonweal: At Rome, as on the Danube's banks, the way To gain a scrap of justice is to pay. I know my words are rude, and only wait Humbly to suffer candour's usual fate." The half wild peasant paused, and all, Astonished that such words could fall From lips uncouth, and that such sense, Large-heartedness, and eloquence, Could dwell within a savage man, Proclaimed him a Patrician. The Danube's prefects were recalled, And others in their place installed. And more than this, the Senate made A copy of the Peasant's speech, All future orators to teach How to tell truth, convince, persuade. But sad to tell, not long at Rome Had eloquence like this its home. FABLE CCV. THE LIONESS AND SHE-BEAR.