_Hor._ A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.[66][68] In the most high and palmy state of Rome,[66][69] A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,[66] The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead[66][70] 115 Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:[66][71] . . . . . . . As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,[66][72][73] Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,[66][74][73] Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,[66] Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:[66] 120 And even the like precurse of fierce events,[66][75] As harbingers preceding still the fates[66][76] And prologue to the omen coming on,[66][77] Have heaven and earth together demonstrated[66] Unto our climatures and countrymen.[66][78] 125 _Re-enter_ Ghost. But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion![79] If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, Speak to me:[80] If there be any good thing to be done,[80] 130 That may to thee do ease and grace to me,[81] Speak to me:[81] If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,[82][83] O, speak![82] 135 Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,[84] Speak of it: stay, and speak! [_The cock crows._] Stop it, Marcellus.[85] _Mar._ Shall I strike at it with my partisan?[86] 140 _Hor._ Do, if it will not stand.[87][88] _Ber._ 'Tis here![87] _Hor._ 'Tis here![87] _Mar._ 'Tis gone! [_Exit Ghost._[87][89] We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence; For it is, as the air, invulnerable,[90] 145 And our vain blows malicious mockery. _Ber._ It was about to speak, when the cock crew. _Hor._ And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,[91] 150 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day, and at his warning,[92] Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,[92] The extravagant and erring spirit hies[92][93] To his confine: and of the truth herein[92] 155 This present object made probation.