Her mouth is; and too well, too well I know

Her face is dazzling as a funeral flame

Battened on queen’s flesh!

(Turning angrily from window.)

Oh the blatant shame!

The bungling drunkard’s plot!—Tonight, tonight

I shall swoop down upon them by the light

Of naked steel! Faugh! Had it come to that?

Had Rome no sword, that like a drowning rat

The mother of a king should meet her end?