And kings by birth to lowest rank return; All subject to the power of giddy chance, For fortune can depress, or can advance: But true nobility is of the mind, Not given by chance, and not to chance resigned. For the remaining doubt of thy decree, What to resolve, and how dispose of me; Be warned to cast that useless care aside, Myself alone will for myself provide. If in thy doating and decrepit age, Thy soul, a stranger in thy youth to rage, Begins in cruel deeds to take delight, Gorge with my blood thy barbarous appetite; For I so little am disposed to pray For life, I would not cast a wish away. Such as it is, the offence is all my own; And what to Guiscard is already done, Or to be done is doomed by thy decree, } That, if not executed first by thee, } Shall on my person be performed by me. } Away! with women weep, and leave me here, Fixed, like a man, to die without a tear; Or save, or slay us both this present hour, 'Tis all that fate has left within thy power.-- She said; nor did her father fail to find, In all she spoke, the greatness of her mind; Yet thought she was not obstinate to die, Nor deemed the death she promised was so nigh. Secure in this belief, he left the dame, Resolved to spare her life, and save her shame; But that detested object to remove, To wreck his vengeance, and to cure her love. Intent on this, a secret order signed The death of Guiscard to his guards enjoined; Strangling was chosen, and the night the time; A mute revenge, and blind as was the crime. His faithful heart, a bloody sacrifice, Torn from his breast, to glut the tyrant's eyes, Closed the severe command; for (slaves to pay) What kings decree, the soldier must obey: Waged against foes; and when the wars are o'er, Fit only to maintain despotic power; Dangerous to freedom, and desired alone By kings, who seek an arbitrary throne.[215] Such were these guards; as ready to have slain The prince himself, allured with greater gain: So was the charge performed with better will, By men inured to blood, and exercised in ill. Now, though the sullen sire had eased his mind, } The pomp of his revenge was yet behind, } A pomp prepared to grace the present he designed. } A goblet rich with gems, and rough with gold, Of depth and breadth the precious pledge to hold, With cruel care he chose; the hollow part Inclosed, the lid concealed the lover's heart. Then of his trusted mischiefs one he sent, And bade him, with these words, the gift present:-- "Thy father sends thee this to cheer thy breast, And glad thy sight with what thou lov'st the best; As thou hast pleased his eyes, and joyed his mind, With what he loved the most of human kind."-- Ere this, the royal dame, who well had weighed The consequence of what her sire had said, Fixed on her fate, against the expected hour,