பதிப்பு : மனோன்மணியம் - நாடகம்
Perilous boundary rights by Media claimed
-
O'er that great stream which, laving Scythian plains, Europe from Asia guards,
351
The Persian Prince, in wedding Scythia's daughter
124
Might well resign, in pledge of lasting peace
But ill the project of Omartes pleased
His- warlike free born chiefs,
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And ill the wilder tribes of his fierce people;
128
For Scyth and Mede had long been as those winds Whose very meeting in itself is storm,
Yet the King's will prevailed,
Confirmed, when wavering, by his trusted Seuthes.
132
He, the fierce leader of the fiercest horde,
Won from the wild by greed of gain and power, Stood on the bound between
Man social and man savage, dark and massive:
136
So rugged was he that men deemed him true, So secret was he that men deemed him wise,
And he had grown so great,
The throne was lost behind the subject's shadow.
140
In the advice he whispered to the king
He laid the key - stone of ambitious hope,
This marriage with the Mede
Would leave to heirs remote the Scythian kingdom,
144
Sow in men's minds vague fears of foreign rule,
Which might, if cultured, spring to armed revolt.
In armed revolt how oft
Kings disappear, and none dare call it murder.
148
And when a crown falls bloodstained in the dust, The strong man standing nearest to its fall Takes it and crowns himself;
And heirs remote are swept from earth as rebels.
152
