Scene III A Bridge Across the Tiber
Alarum. The Romans are beaten off. Enter Brutus, Horatius, Valerius, Scevola, Lucretius and Collatine.
Brutus.
Thou Jovial hand, hold up thy sceptre high,
And let not justice be oppressed with pride!
O you Penates; leave not Rome and us
Grasped in the purple hands of death and ruin!
The Tarquins have the best.
Horatius.
Yet stand; my foot is fixed upon this bridge.
Tiber, thy archèd streams shall be changed crimson
With Roman blood before I budge from hence.
Scevola.
Brutus, retire; for if thou enter Rome
We are all lost. Stand not on valour now,
But save thy people; let’s survive this day,
To try the fortunes of another field.
Valerius.
Break down the bridge, lest the pursuing enemy
Enter with us and take the spoil of Rome.
Horatius.
Then break behind me; for, by Heaven, I’ll grow
And root my foot as deep as to the centre,
Before I leave this passage!
Lucretius.
Come, you’re mad.
Collatine.
The foe comes on, and we in trifling here,
Hazard ourself and people.
Horatius.
Save them all;
To make Rome stand, Horatius here will fall.
Brutus.
We would not lose thee; do not breast thyself
’Gainst thousands; if thou front’st them thou art ringed
With million swords and darts, and we behind
Must break the bridge of Tiber to save Rome.
Before thee infinite65 gaze on thy face
And menace death; the raging streams of Tiber
Are at thy back to swallow thee.
Horatius.
Retire;
To make Rome live, ’tis death that I desire.
Brutus.
Then farewell, dead Horatius! think in us
The universal arm of potent Rome
Takes his last leave of thee in this embrace.
[All embrace him.
Horatius.
Farewell!
All.
Farewell!
Brutus.
These arches all must down
To interdict their passage through the town.
[Exeunt all except Horatius.
Alarum. Enter Tarquin, Porsenna, and Aruns, with their pikes and targeters.
All.
Enter, enter, enter.
[A noise of knocking down the bridge, within.
Horatius.
Soft, Tarquin! see a bulwark to the bridge,
You first must pass; the man that enters here
Must make his passage through Horatius’ breast;
See, with this target do I buckler66 Rome,
And with this sword defy the puissant army
Of two great kings.
Porsenna.
One man to face an host!
Charge, soldiers! of full forty thousand Romans
There’s but one daring hand against your host,
To keep you from the sack or spoil of Rome.
Charge, charge!
Aruns.
Upon them, soldiers!
[Alarum.
Enter Sextus and Valerius above, at opposite sides.
Sextus.
O cowards, slaves, and vassals! what, not enter!
Was it for this you placed my regiment
Upon a hill, to be the sad spectator
Of such a general cowardice? Tarquin, Aruns,
Porsenna, soldiers, pass Horatius quickly,
For they behind him will devolve the bridge,
And raging Tiber, that’s impassable,
Your host must swim before you conquer Rome.
Valerius.
Yet stand, Horatius; bear but one brunt more;
The archèd bridge shall sink upon his piles,
And in his fall lift thy renown to Heaven.
Sextus.
Yet enter!
Valerius.
Dear Horatius, yet stand,
And save a million by one powerful hand.
[Alarum; the bridge falls.
All.
Charge, charge, charge!
Sextus.
Degenerate slaves! the bridge is fallen, Rome’s lost.
Valerius.
Horatius, thou art stronger than their host;
Thy strength is valour, theirs are idle braves,
Now save thyself, and leap into the waves.
Horatius.
Porsenna, Tarquin, now wade past your depths
And enter Rome. I feel my body sink
Beneath my ponderous weight; Rome is preserved,
And now farewell; for he that follows me
Must search the bottom of this raging stream.
Fame, with thy golden wings renown my crest!
And, Tiber, take me on thy silver breast! [Exit.
Porsenna.
He’s leapt off from the bridge and drowned himself.
Sextus.
You are deceived; his spirit soars too high
To be choked in with the base element
Of water; lo! he swims, armed as he is,
Whilst all the army have discharged their arrows,
Of which the shield upon his back sticks full. [Shout and flourish.
And hark, the shout of all the multitude
Now welcomes him a-land! Horatius’ fame
Hath checked our armies with a general shame.
But come, to-morrow’s fortune must restore
This scandal, which I of the gods implore.
Porsenna.
Then we must find another time, fair prince,
To scourge these people, and revenge your wrongs.
For this night I’ll betake me to my tent. [Exit.
Tarquin.
And we to ours; to-morrow we’ll renown
Our army with the spoil of this rich town.
[Exeunt.