The deed once done, there is an end—that proved
A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race.'"
Wright's version is,—
"Then one deprived of both his hands, who stood
Lifting the bleeding stumps amid the dim
Dense air, so that his face was stain'd with blood,
Cried, 'In thy mind let Mosca bear a place,
Who said, alas! Deed done is well begun—
Words fraught with evil to the Tuscan race.'"
Disraeli adopts Cary's interpretation of the proverb, and does not seem to suspect that it can have any other. Milton appears to have used it in the same sense. "When deeply engaged," says Disraeli, "in writing 'The Defence of the People,' and warned that it might terminate in his blindness, he resolutely concluded his work, exclaiming with great magnanimity, although the fatal prognostication had been accomplished, Cosa fatta capo ha! Did this proverb also influence his decision on that great national event, when the most honest-minded fluctuated between doubts and fears?"