VI

Again looked, and beheld a different sight.

      The Duke had fled before the people's shout

"Long live the Duke!" A people, to speak right,

      Should speak as soft as courtiers, lest a doubt

Turn gracious sovereign brows to curdled white.

Moreover that same dangerous shouting meant

Some gratitude for future favours, which

      Were only promised;—the Constituent

Implied;—the whole being subject to the hitch

      In motu proprios, very incident

To all these Czars, from Paul to Paulovitch.

      Whereat the people rose up in the dust

Of the Duke's flying feet, and shouted still,

      And loudly, only, this time, as was just,

Not "Live the Duke," who had fled, for good or ill

      But "Live the People," who remained and must,

The unrenounced and unrenounceable.