THE following scene between Spartacus the gladiator, at the head of a rebel army, and Crassus the Roman Consul, coming to his camp, to make proposals for an accommodation, is taken from the French tragedy of Spartacus written by Saurin. It has neither the flowing style nor the harmonious versification of Racine, but it is not deficient in energy; and as it suggests many turns of expression proper for genteel conversation, it affords an excellent exercise for converting poetry into prose. Crassus having on his arrival made a short complimentary speech, Spartacus interrupts him, saying:

Souffrez que j'interrompe un discours si flatteur.
Cessez à mes talens d'imputer mon bonheur ;
Du succès trop souvent la fortune dispose,
Et le Ciel qui connoit l'équité de ma cause,

A dû favoriser l'ennemi des tyrans.

Mais, sans plus vous livrer à de vains complimens,
Qu'avez vous résolu? Vous voyez votre armée,
Sans espoir de secours, par la mienne enfermée.
Crassus.

L'avantage du poste est sans doute pour vous:
Mais sachez, Spartacus, que nous avons pour nous
La nécessité même où nous sommes de vaincre.
Vous savez, mille faits ont dû vous en convaincre,
Que rien n'est impossible à des cœurs obstinés,

Et
que des grands périls les grands efforts sont nés.
Du sort toujours changeant prévenez l'inconstance ;
Rome, qui sait priser votre haute vaillance,
A des conditions que je viens apporter
Avec vous aujourd'hui me permet de traiter,

ર

Spartacus.

Vous avec moi traiter! Rome avec un rebelle,
Et dont la tête encore est proscrite par elle!
D'un semblable traité le Sénat rougiroit,
En tireroit le fruit et vous désavoueroit.

Crassus.

Non, et je puis conclure; il m'en laisse le maître.
Mais des faveurs du Sort enorgueilli peut-être .

Spartacus.

Non;
à votre malheur je suis loin d'insulter,
Mais ces conditions qu'on me vient apporter,
J'aurois cru que c'étoit à moi de les prescrire,
Au vainqueur d'ordonner, aux vaincus de souscrire :
Mais l'orgueil du Sénat ne se peut abaisser.
Je veux bien cependant ne m'en point offenser ;
Sachons ce qu'en son nom son Consul me propose.
Brisera-t-il le joug qu'à la terre il impose?

Crassus.

Vos Soldats, Spartacus, seront faits citoyens,
Rome à leur subsistance assignera des biens;
On fera Chevalier le chef qui vous seconde ;
Avec nous au Sénat vous régirez le monde.

Spartacus.

Du tems des Scipions j'aurois pu l'accepter;
Rome étoit digne alors qu'on s'en fit adopter.
De la reine des Mers magnanime rivale
Dans cette guerre un tems pour elle si fatale,

On la vit, toujours ferme en ses plus grands revers,
De sa rare constance étonner l'univers,

En croissant de malheurs augmenter de courage,
Et détruissant enfin la perfide Carthage,
Triompher par vertu d'Annibal et du sort;
Rome dut son salut à ce puissant ressort.
Mais depuis qu'en son sein les richesses versées
Usurpent tout l'éclat des vertus épuisées,
Que l'orgueil, l'avarice ont infecté vos cœurs,
Et que de l'univers avides oppresseurs
Vous en avez conquis les trésors et les vices,

Que m'offrez vous sinon d'être un de vos complices?

Ah! de votre pouvoir si devenant l'appui

Ce que j'ai condamné je l'approuve aujourd'hui,
Rome, en mettant à prix ma tête criminelle,
A proscrit justement son esclave rebelle,

Et le vengeur du monde et de ses libertés
Ne fut rien, en effet, qu'un chef de révoltés.
Mais à quoi prétend-on borner mon espérance?
Qu'offrez vous qui demain ne tombe en ma puissance?
Mes soldats, dites vous, seront faits citoyens,
Rome à leur subsistance assignera des biens;
Vous ferez chevalier le chef qui me seconde,
Avec vous, au Sénat je régirai le monde.
Mais dans Rome demain, Sénateurs, Citoyens,
Seront en mon pouvoir, ainsi que tous vos biens.
J'ordonnerai du sort de ces maîtres du monde,
Je verrai sur quel droit ce grand titre se fonde,
Et si, soumettant tout aux loix du Consulat,
Il faut que Rome soit, et qu'elle ait un Sénat.
Crassus.

Vous y pourrez encor rencontrer des obstacles.
Un noble désespoir enfante des miracles;

L'espoir le mieux fondé souvent cache un revers;
Enfin les Dieux à Rome ont promis l'univers ;

Quels que soient leurs décrets, Spartacus doit s'attendre
Que le dernier de nous périra sans se rendre.

SPARTACUS.-Allow me to interrupt such a flattering speech. Do not impute my good luck to my talents; fortune too often disposes of our success, and Heaven, which knows the equity of my cause, must have favoured the enemy of tyrants. But without indulging in any more idle compliments, what have you resolved? You see your army is enclosed by mine without any hope of succour, Crassus.-The advantage of post is, undoubtedly, on your side: but remember, Spartacus, that we have for us the very necessity under which we are to conquer. You know, a thousand facts must have convinced you of it, that there is nothing impossible to obstinate courage, and that great perils engender great efforts. Prevent the inconstancy of a continually changing fate; Rome, which knows how to appreciate your great valour, permits me to treat with you to-day on conditions which I have brought with me. Spartacus.-You! treat with me! Rome treat with a rebel whose head is still proscribed! The Senate, blushing of such a treaty, would benefit by it, and disown your deed. Crassus.-No, I am authorised to conclude it; the Senate leaves it to me. But, perhaps, proud of the favours of fate.. Spartacus.No, I am far from insulting your misfortune. But those conditions which you bring me, I think it is I who should dictate them; it behoves the conqueror to command, and the vanquished to submit. But the pride of the senate cannot come down. However, I will not take

.....

any offence at it. Let us hear what the Consul has to propose in the name of the Senate will it break the yoke which it imposes upon the world? Crassus.-Your soldiers, Spartacus, shall obtain the rights of citizens; Rome will assign lands for their subsistence. Your second in command is to be made a Roman Knight, and you, yourself, are to govern the world with us in the senate. Spartacus.— In the time of the Scipios I might have accepted such terms. Rome then was worthy that one should wish to be her adopted child. Magnanimous rival of the Queen of the Seas, Rome always was seen firm in the greatest reverses during that war, which for a time was so fatal to her; astonishing the world with her rare constancy, increasing in courage as her misfortunes increased, and destroying at length perfidious Carthage, she triumphed through her virtues over Annibal and fate. It was to this powerful spring that Rome owed her safety. But since the wealth poured into her lap hath usurped the splendour of her exhausted virtues, since pride and avarice have infected your hearts, and since, greedy oppressors of the world, you have appropriated to yourselves its treasures and its vices, what are you offering me but to be one of your accomplices? Ah! if, by becoming the support of your power, I should approve this day what I have hitherto condemned, Rome, by setting a price upon my guilty head, would have justly proscribed her rebellious slave, and the avenger of the world and of its liberties would actually have been nothing but a chief of rebels. But what are the hopes you hold out to me? What you offer will be to-morrow in my power. My soldiers, you say, shall be made citizens; Rome will assign lands for their subsistence; my second in command is to be made a Knight, and I am to govern the world with you in the Senate. But to-morrow, senators, citizens, and all your property, will be in my power within the walls of Rome. I shall settle the fate of these masters of the world; I shall see on what right this high title is founded, and whether it be necessary that Rome, submitting all to the laws of her Consulship, should continue to exist and to have a Senate. Crassus.-You may yet meet with obstacles; a noble despair is apt to beget miracles; the best grounded hopes often hide a reverse. In short, the gods have promised the world to Rome, and whatever may be their decrees, Spartacus may be sure that the last of us will perish without surrendering.

Souffrez que j'interrompe, allow me to interrupt. The irr. a. v. souffrir, (which is conjugated like couvrir,) to endure, to bear, to tolerate, to admit, means here to allow, to permit. You may say either souffrez que je vous dise, or permettez que

je vous dise, allow me to tell you. The latter is the most polite, and may be rendered by permettez moi de vous dire: but you cannot say, souffre zmoi de vous dire; it must be construed with the conjunctive, souffrez que.

Et le ciel a dû favoriser, and Heaven must have favoured. The reg. a. v. 3. devoir, to owe, to be indebted, means also to ought, to be obliged. In the conditional it expresses the English should, when denoting a duty, an obligation. You should write to your father, vous devriez écrire à votre père. But " we should write in vain," is simply, nous écririons en vain. The same is to be observed in the preterpluperfect or compound of the conditional, or of the first imperfect of the conjunctive. You should have written to your father, vous auriez dû écrire à votre père; we should have written yesterday if we had not been at the play, nous aurions écrit hier si nous n'avions pas été à la Comédie.

il m'en laisse le maître, he (le Sénat, m.) leaves me the master of it. en refers to the verb conclure, which is mentioned before; the meaning therefore is the Senate has given me full powers to treat, to conclude a treaty.

insulter, r. a. 1. to insult, is often employed as a neuter verb, and then it is construed with the dative, as here, je suis loin d'insulter à votre malheur. The military expression insulter, to attack openly, by open force, must be construed with the accusative. ils ont insulté la place, they attacked the place openly, they considered it of so little strength that there was no occasion to conceal their attack.

j'aurois cru que c'étoit à moi, I should have thought that it belonged to me, that it was my turn; that it was I who. The French say, c'est à vous à faire les cartes, it is your turn to deal (at cards,) page 215, No. XIV.

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Un vainqueur, s. m. a conqueror, a vanquisher; is also used adjectively for triumphant;" des charmes vainqueurs, allsubduing charms; and as vingt cœurs, twenty hearts, has exactly the same pronunciation, you might say of a beautiful female, ses charmes vainqueurs ont conquis plus de vingt

cœurs.

je veux bien, I consent, I agree, but here I condescend, page 51 and 53, No. IV.