With those fingers of blood; begone!’
With a gesture of horror he spurns the form
That writhes at his feet like a trodden worm.”
And in the death-scene of the martyr, as painted by Whittier, the coward and the villain, with forces
equally matched, strive for the mastery.
The ode “To Pius IX.” will furnish us with another example of religious hate driving its victim to the very verge of raving madness. “Hider at Gaeta,” he exclaims—
“Hider at Gaeta, seize thy chance!
Coward and cruel, come!
“Creep now from Naple’s bloody skirt;
Thy mummer’s part was acted well,