* * * * *

     When they who, loud for liberty and laws,
     In doubtful times had fought their country’s cause,
     When now of conquest and dominion sure,
     They sought alone to hold their fruit secure;
     When taught by these, Oppression hid the face,
     To leave Corruption stronger in her place,
     By silent spells to work the public fate,
     And taint the vitals of the passive state,
     Till healing Wisdom should avail no more,
     And Freedom loath to tread the poisoned shore: 
     Then, like some guardian god that flies to save
     The weary pilgrim from an instant grave,
     Whom, sleeping and secure, the guileful snake
     Steals near and nearer thro’ the peaceful brake,—­
     Then Curio rose to ward the public woe,
     To wake the heedless and incite the slow,
     Against Corruption Liberty to arm. 
     And quell the enchantress by a mightier charm.

* * * * *

     Lo! the deciding hour at last appears;
     The hour of every freeman’s hopes and fears!

* * * * *

     See Freedom mounting her eternal throne,
     The sword submitted, and the laws her own! 
     See! public Power, chastised, beneath her stands,
     With eyes intent, and uncorrupted hands! 
     See private life by wisest arts reclaimed! 
     See ardent youth to noblest manners framed! 
     See us acquire whate’er was sought by you,
     If Curio, only Curio will be true.

     ’Twas then—­O shame!  O trust how ill repaid! 
     O Latium, oft by faithless sons betrayed!—­
     ’Twas then—­What frenzy on thy reason stole? 
     What spells unsinewed thy determined soul?—­
     Is this the man in Freedom’s cause approved? 
     The man so great, so honored, so beloved? 
     This patient slave by tinsel chains allured? 
     This wretched suitor for a boon abjured? 
     This Curio, hated and despised by all? 
     Who fell himself to work his country’s fall?

     O lost, alike to action and repose! 
     Unknown, unpitied in the worst of woes! 
     With all that conscious, undissembled pride,
     Sold to the insults of a foe defied! 
     With all that habit of familiar fame,
     Doomed to exhaust the dregs of life in shame! 
     The sole sad refuge of thy baffled art
     To act a stateman’s dull, exploded part,
     Renounce the praise no longer in thy power,
     Display thy virtue, though without a dower,
     Contemn the giddy crowd, the vulgar wind,
     And shut thy eyes that others may be blind.

* * * * *