Throughout that clime the feudal Chiefs had gained

Such sway, their infant monarch hardly reigned;

Now was the hour for Faction's rebel growth,

The Serfs contemned the one, and hated both:

They waited but a leader, and they found

One to their cause inseparably bound;

By circumstance compelled to plunge again,

In self-defence, amidst the strife of men.

Cut off by some mysterious fate from those

Whom Birth and Nature meant not for his foes, 880

Had Lara from that night, to him accurst,

Prepared to meet, but not alone, the worst:

Some reason urged, whate'er it was, to shun

Inquiry into deeds at distance done;

By mingling with his own the cause of all,

E'en if he failed, he still delayed his fall.

The sullen calm that long his bosom kept,

The storm that once had spent itself and slept,

Roused by events that seemed foredoomed to urge

His gloomy fortunes to their utmost verge, 890

Burst forth, and made him all he once had been,

And is again; he only changed the scene.

Light care had he for life, and less for fame,

But not less fitted for the desperate game:

He deemed himself marked out for others' hate,

And mocked at Ruin so they shared his fate.

And cared he for the freedom of the crowd?

He raised the humble but to bend the proud.

He had hoped quiet in his sullen lair,

But Man and Destiny beset him there: 900

Inured to hunters, he was found at bay;

And they must kill, they cannot snare the prey.

Stern, unambitious, silent, he had been

Henceforth a calm spectator of Life's scene;

But dragged again upon the arena, stood

A leader not unequal to the feud;

In voice—mien—gesture—savage nature spoke,

And from his eye the gladiator broke.