_Mar._ Yet she knew thee well. 750 I had been proud to have done her deed. I think There are not many men as brave as she.
_Pal._ O, lady, there are many, women and men, Sworn to risk life in our good cause.
_Mar._ Alas, That such fine courage should be so misled!
_Mar._ I had forgot. Pardon me, sir. It was my brother’s word.
_Pal._ Ay, ’tis his word. And yet I honour Manuel. Were’t not for him there scarce would be a man Of all our people who would reverence 760 Justice and order, and those other names Of social welfare. ’Tis to him alone We have looked to give us these. But if he stand Where he can take our tyrants by the arm And show them baits of righteousness, and lead them Where they should go, shall we who lie beneath Forbear to sting the laggard heel of justice, Or think it crime to obstruct the path of wrong? I blame not him that from his higher place He finds offence in outcry and disorder: 770 To such as without loss or shame outride The storms of shifting fortune this is easy.
_Mar._ What dost thou but exasperate ill-will?
_Pal._ Already our bread has been untaxed two days.
_Pal._ I have better hope, Or had: for if I had once provoked the Spaniard To set his troops against us, all the nobles, Who now retired hold neutral parliament, Would then have joined the people, and compelled The justice of our claim by force of arms. 780
_Pal._ All save one or two, who are bought With Hugo’s money.
_Pal._ O lady, Unto their great dishonour they are bought, With sweated pence wrung from the labourer, Ere he can buy a loaf to feed his children Out of the corn his hands have sown and reaped. Is not this shame?
_Pal._ And shall Palicio See this thing done, because he hath not office, Or those few paltry florins, which might turn The scale for poor Sicilians?
_Mar._ Ah, indeed, 790 I knew, I felt that thou wert right; and now I see it: I never blamed thee.
_Pal._ No, nor Manuel Blames me at heart, tho’ he forbid my means. Think, had I kept my old estate, and he Had fallen as I, should I not do as he, And he as I am doing?
_Mar._ Oh, I think ’Tis nobler to be poor. To share the suffering Of them we pity ranks above redress. I am come to envy thee.
_Pal._ And certain it is, They who have least to lose will venture most. 800