If they dare
To tempt the desperate weapon that is maddened
With drinking my daughter's blood, why, let them.
Thus, thus it rushes in amongst them. Way, there!"
His exit here used to excite the wildest huzzas, the men in the pit standing with their hats in their uplifted hands, and the women in the boxes waving their handkerchiefs.
Virginius heads the revolution, in which the revolted troops and the commons join. The tyranny is hurled to the dust, the people freed, and Appius lodged in prison. But the wronged and wretched father is broken down by the preternatural horror and excitement he has undergone, and loses his reason. He is next seen in his own desolate home, with a pale and haggard face, and a look half wild, half dreamy, talking to himself:
"'Tis ease! 'tis ease! I am content! 'Tis peace,—
'Tis anything that is most soft and quiet.
And after such a dream! I want my daughter.
Send me my daughter! Will she come, or not?