“‘Be reckoned on to help as heretofore!’
“Whereat Cinone pouts; then, sparkishly—
“‘Papa knew better than aggrieve his Pope,
“‘And baulk him of his grudge against our Count,
“‘Else he’d have argued-off Bottini’s’ … what?
“‘His nose,’—the rogue! well parried of the boy!
“He’s long since out of Cæsar (eight years old)
“And as for tripping in Eutropius … well,
“Reason the more that we strain every nerve
“To do him justice, mould a model-mouth, (360)
“A Bartolus-cum-Baldo for next age:
“For that I purse the pieces, work the brain,
“And want both Gomez and the marriage-case,
“Success with which shall plaster aught of pate
“That’s broken in me by Bottini’s flail,
“And bruise his own, belike, that wags and brags.
“Adverti supplico humiliter
“Quod, don’t the fungus see, the fop divine
“That one hand drives two horses, left and right?
“With this rein did I rescue from the ditch (370)
“The fortune of our Franceschini, keep
“Unsplashed the credit of a noble House,
“And set the fashionable cause of Rome
“A-prancing till bystanders shouted ‘’ware!’
“The other rein’s judicious management
“Suffered old Somebody to keep the pace,
“Hobblingly play the roadster: who but he
“Had his opinion, was not led by the nose
“In leash of quibbles strung to look like law!
“You’ll soon see,—when I go to pay devoir (380)
“And compliment him on confuting me,—
“If, by a back-swing of the pendulum,
“Grace be not, thick and threefold, consequent!
“‘I must decide as I see proper, Don!
“‘The Pope, I have my inward lights for guide,
“‘Had learning been the matter in dispute,
“‘Could eloquence avail to gainsay fact,
“‘Yours were the victory, be comforted!’
“Cinuzzo will be gainer by it all.
“Quick then with Gomez, hot and hot next case!” (390)
Tall blue-eyed Fisc whose head is capped with cloud,
Doctor Bottini,—to no matter who,
Writes on the Monday two days afterward.
Now shall the honest championship of right,
Crowned with success, enjoy at last, unblamed,
Moderate triumph! Now shall eloquence
Poured forth in fancied floods for virtue’s sake,
(The print is sorrowfully dyked and dammed,
But shows where fain the unbridled force would flow, (400)
Finding a channel)—now shall this refresh
The thirsty donor with a drop or two!
Here has been truth at issue with a lie:
Let who gained truth the day have handsome pride
In his own prowess! Eh? What ails the man?
“Well, it is over, ends as I foresaw:
“Easily proved, Pompilia’s innocence!
“Catch them entrusting Guido’s guilt to me!
“I had, as usual, the plain truth to plead.
“I always knew the clearness of the stream (410)
“Would show the fish so thoroughly, child might prong
“The clumsy monster: with no mud to splash,
“Small credit to lynx-eye and lightning-spear!
“This Guido,—(much sport he contrived to make,
“Who at first twist, preamble of the cord,
“Turned white, told all, like the poltroon he was!)—
“Finished, as you expect, a penitent,
“Fully confessed his crime, and made amends,
“And, edifying Rome last Saturday,
“Died like a saint, poor devil! That’s the man (420)
“The gods still give to my antagonist:
“Imagine how Arcangeli claps wing,
“And crows! ‘Such formidable facts to face,
“‘So naked to attack, my client here,
“‘And yet I kept a month the Fisc at bay,
“‘And in the end had foiled him of the prize
“‘By this arch-stroke, this plea of privilege,
“‘But that the Pope must gratify his whim,
“‘Put in his word, poor old man,—let it pass!’
“—Such is the cue to which all Rome responds. (430)
“What with the plain truth given me to uphold,
“And, should I let truth slip, the Pope at hand
“To pick up, steady her on legs again,
“My office turns a pleasantry indeed!
“Not that the burly boaster did one jot
“O’ the little was to do—young Spreti’s work!
“But for him,—mannikin and dandiprat,
“Mere candle-end and inch of cleverness
“Stuck on Arcangeli’s save-all,—but for him
“The spruce young Spreti, what is bad were worse! (440)
“At advocate with case that proves itself;
“I knew Arcangeli would grin and brag:
“But what say you to one impertinence
“Might move a man? That monk, you are to know,
“That barefoot Augustinian whose report
“O’ the dying woman’s words did detriment
“To my best points it took the freshness from,
“—That meddler preached to purpose yesterday
“At San Lorenzo as a winding-up (450)
“O’ the shows, have proved a treasure to the church.
“Out comes his sermon smoking from the press:
“Its text—‘Let God be true, and every man
“‘A liar’—and its application, this,
“The longest- winded of the paragraphs,
“I straight unstitch, tear out and treat you with:
“’Tis piping hot and posts through Rome to-day.
“Remember it, as I engage to do!
“In the result of the long trial here,— (460)
“This dealing doom to guilt and doling praise
“To innocency,—any proof that truth
“May look for vindication from the world,
“Much will you have misread the signs, I say,
“God, who seems acquiescent in the main
“With those who add ‘So will He ever sleep’—
“Flutters their foolishness from time to time,
“Puts forth His right-hand recognisably;
“Even as, to fools who deem He needs must right
“Wrong on the instant, as if earth were heaven, (470)
“He
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