VII. CLAUDE TO EUSTACE.
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o, I have seen a man killed! An experience that, among others!Yes, I suppose I have; although I can hardly be certain,And in a court of justice could never declare I had seen it.But a man was killed, I am told, in a place where I sawSomething; a man was killed, I am told, and I saw something.I was returning home from St. Peter’s; Murray, as usual,Under my arm, I remember; had crossed the St. Angelo bridge; andMoving towards the Condotti, had got to the first barricade, whenGradually, thinking still of St. Peter’s, I became consciousOf a sensation of movement opposing me,—tendency this way(Such as one fancies may be in a stream when the wave of the tide isComing and not yet come,—a sort of noise and retention);So I turned, and, before I turned, caught sight of stragglersHeading a crowd, it is plain, that is coming behind that corner.Looking up, I see windows filled with heads; the Piazza,Into which you remember the Ponte St. Angelo enters,Since I passed, has thickened with curious groups; and now theCrowd is coming, has turned, has crossed that last barricade, isHere at my side. In the middle they drag at something. What is it?Ha! bare swords in the air, held up? There seem to be voicesPleading and hands putting back; official, perhaps; but the swords areMany, and bare in the air. In the air? they descend; they are smiting,Hewing, chopping—At what? In the air once more upstretched? And—Is it blood that’s on them? Yes, certainly blood! Of whom, then?Over whom is the cry of this furor of exultation?While they are skipping and screaming, and dancing their caps on thepoints ofSwords and bayonets, I to the outskirts back, and ask aMercantile-seeming bystander, ‘What is it?’ and he, looking alwaysThat way, makes me answer, ‘A Priest, who was trying to fly toThe Neapolitan army,’—and thus explains the proceeding.You didn’t see the dead man? No;—I began to be doubtful;I was in black myself, and didn’t know what mightn’t happen,—But a National Guard close by me, outside of the hubbub,Broke his sword with slashing a broad hat covered with dust,—andPassing away from the place with Murray under my arm, andStooping, I saw through the legs of the people the legs of a body.You are the first, do you know, to whom I have mentioned the matter.Whom should I tell it to else?—these girls?—the Heavens forbid it!—Quidnuncs at Monaldini’s?—Idlers upon the Pincian?If I rightly remember, it happened on that afternoon whenWord of the nearer approach of a new Neapolitan armyFirst was spread. I began to bethink me of Paris Septembers,Thought I could fancy the look of that old ’Ninety-two. On that eveningThree or four, or, it may be, five, of these people were slaughtered.Some declared they had, one of them, fired on a sentinel; othersSay they were only escaping; a Priest, it is currently stated,Stabbed a National Guard on the very Piazza Colonna:History, Rumour of Rumours, I leave to thee to determine!But I am thankful to say the government seems to have strength toPut it down; it has vanished, at least; the place is most peaceful.Through the Trastevere walking last night, at nine of the clock, IFound no sort of disorder; I crossed by the Island-bridges,So by the narrow streets to the Ponte Rotto, and onwardsThence by the Temple of Vesta, away to the great Coliseum,Which at the full of the moon is an object worthy a visit.
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