C A TV T 0 If.
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For it was not the blind capricious rageA word can kindle and a word assuage;
But the deep working of a soul unmix’dWith aught of pity where its wrath had fix’d;Such as long power and overgorged successConcentrates into all that’s merciless:
These, link’d with that desire which ever swaysMankind, the rather to condemn than praise,’Gainst I.ara gathering raised at length a storm,Such as himself might fear, and foes would form.And he must answer for the absent head 800Of one that haunts him still, alive or dead.
VIII.
Within that land was many a malcontent.Who cursed the tyranny to which he bent;That soil full many a wringing despot saw.Who worked his wanlonness in form of law';Long war without and frequent broil withinHad made a path for blood and giant sin,That waited but a signal to beginJVew havock, such as civil discord blends, 809Which knows no neuter, owns but foes or friends;Fix’d in his feudal fortress each was lord,
In word and deed obeyed , in soul abhorr’d.Thus Lara had inherited his lands,
And with them pining hearts and sluggish hands;But that long absence from his native dime