Ruin the three together and alike,

Yet leave himself in luck and liberty,

No claim renounced, no right a forfeiture,

His person unendangered, his good fame

Without a flaw, his pristine worth intact,—

While they, with all their claims and rights that cling,

Shall forthwith crumble off him every side,

Scorched into dust, a plaything for the winds.

As when, in our Campagna, there is fired

The nest-like work that overruns a hut;