Treacle

“ By every tie that hath its birth
Within your homes--around your hearth;
Believe me, 'tis a tyrant's plot,
Worse for the fair and sleek disguise--
A traitor in a patriot's cloak!
"Your country's good
Demands your blood!"
Was it a fiend from hell that spoke?
They point us to the Stripes and Stars;
(Our banner erst--the despot's now!)
But let not thoughts of by-gone wars,
When beat we back the common foe,
And felled them fast and shamed them so,
Divide us at this fearful hour ”

“ The monarchy, the nobility, the clergy, are attacked as they never have been through the worst days of our history. And it is at such an hour that you, one of the greatest lords of France, you, a man of spirit and of courage, sheath your sword—at this hour when the battle is engaged with the Third Estate! Ah, Count, if you did not belong to the house of Plouernel, I would say that you were a coward and a traitor. ”

“ A retreat before the enemy is a misfortune, but retreat before rebels is treason. Before I descend from this tribune I want to know whether the will of the majority of the French people is to be respected, or whether we are to bow before the authority of the Sections—we, the will of the nation. ”

“ Must I tell thee, false earl, that, in addition to thy rebellion, all assurance and friendship with Englishmen is treason; that the residence of a Scot in England is treason; that buying from or selling to Englishmen is treason; that all travelling or trafficking with Englishmen, by word or writing, is treason; incurring the penalties of proscription and death! Not content with the committal of all these crimes, and with levying war against our wardens with lances uplifted and banner displayed, I find thee the boon-companion of thieves and outlaws, who live by slaughter and robbery ”

“ Treason, my lords, treason! Look to the queen—secure the traitor! Thou, duke of Lennox, with thy followers, haste straight to the kirk of Field! Without, there—let my trumpets sound to horse! By Him that made me,” he continued, “the populace are rising!”—for the deep swell of voices, that rose without, announced the presence of a mighty multitude. ”

“ The armies of the Republic drove them out, but treachery stalks in the land, it comes up out of the ground, it sits at our hearthstones, lurks in the bosom of the representatives of the people, of our fathers, of our brothers. ”

“ Here guile and treason every nerve apply:
An impious king for thee the toil prepares,
An impious people weaves a thousand snares:
Oh fly these shores, unfurl the gather'd sail,
Lo, Heaven, thy guide, commands the rising gale ”

“ Should traitors again assay to grasp the helm of state, and the cry go up for succor, while the legions of young men spring armed from the North, let there be no words of sneering spoken to keep back those whose hearts go out with them, and who would gladly leave home, and friends, and comfort, to follow the brave one to the battle, and bind up his wounds when the day was won, and his life fast ebbing away with the gory stream, drawing, with every shifting sand, nearer and nearer the fountain. ”

“ Can I call you "soldiers?"—you who have beset with arms the son of your emperor, eonfined him in your trenches? "Citizens" can I call you?—you who have treated with such scorn the authority of the senate? The obligations observed by enemies—the sacred persons and privileges of ambassadors—the laws of nations—you have violated. ”

“ Our sacrilegious sects their guides outgo,
And kings and kingly power would murder too.
What means their traitorous combination less,
Too plain to evade, too shameful to confess!
But treason is not own'd when 'tis descried;
Successful crimes alone are justified.
The men, who no conspiracy would find,
Who doubts, but had it taken, they had join'd, 210
Join'd in a mutual covenant of defence;
At first without, at last against their prince? ”

“ The material parts of it declare 'that whereas divers opinions have been before this time, in what case treason shall be said, and in what not ... when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king ... or if a man do levy war against our lord the king in his realm, or be adherent to the king's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in [Pg 37] the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be provable attainted of open deed by people of their condition,' it is treason. ”

“ I do not believe in killing kings, or any other men; but I do say, in a time when the nation was not in danger, that no British king, for two hundred years past, would have dared call it treason to discuss the war—its cause, its progress, or its termination! ”

“ The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?
So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,
Who all this while hath revell'd in the night,
Whilst we were wand'ring with the Antipodes,
Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
Not able to endure the sight of day,
But self-affrighted tremble at his sin. ”

“ When statutes glean the refuse of the sword,
How much more safe the vassal than the lord:
Low skulks the hind beneath the reach of power,
And leaves the wealthy traitor in the Tower;
Untouch'd his cottage, and his slumbers sound,
Though Confiscation's vultures hover round.
The needy traveller, serene and gay,
Walks the wild heath, and sings his toil away.
Does envy seize thee? ”

“ Can keep a forest best of any man;
Now keep them well, for if ye will ye can.
Look well, that ye unto no vice assent,
Lest ye be damned for your wick' intent,
For whoso doth, a traitor is certain;
And take keep of that I shall you sayn;
Of alle treason, sov'reign pestilence
Is when a wight betrayeth innocence. ”

“ And the king's men pursue them fiercely, and hack and hew, and cleave, and brain them, and call the count a traitor. When he hears himself accused of treason, he flees for refuge towards his keep; and his men flee with him. And their enemies who fiercely rush after take them captive; they let not a single one escape of all those that they catch. They kill and slay so many that I do not think that more than seven reached a place of safety. When the traitors entered the keep, they are stayed at the entrance ”

“ If the soldiers were arresting or merely molesting a heretic or a rebel, any one who interfered with them would at once fall under the searching eye of the Inquisition--and there was never a lack of spies on such occasions: the seven stiver people--who for that paltry daily sum spent their lives in reporting treason, listening for it in every tavern, and in every back street of every city. ”

“ The soldiers felt distinctly that this was a double stain upon their uniform—the outrage upon the Representatives of the People—which was treason, and the slaughter of unarmed men, which was cowardice. Now treason and cowardice are two epaulets to which a general sometimes becomes reconciled, the soldier—never. ”

“ So sacred was this allegiance, that only the most detested tyrants were in personal danger of assassination, or those who were objects of religious fanaticism. A king could dismiss his most powerful minister, or his most triumphant general at the head of an army, by a stroke of the pen, or by a word, without expostulation or resistance. ”

“ By an act of 1796, made perpetual in 1817, the definition of treason is extended so as to include plots within or without Great Britain to cause the death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to the death, destruction, maiming, or wounding, imprisonment or restraint of the king, if such plots are expressed by publishing any printing or writing, or by any overt act or deed. ”

“ So small is it that it will be invisible in thy hand, and while thine enemy stands before thee in fancied safety, pierce him to death; for, thou are ruler and it is fitting that death should strike him who attempts to rob thy people of their chief! ”

“ Arms are the trade of each plebeian soul;
'Tis death to fight, but kingly to controul;
[Pg 368] Lord-like at ease, with arbitrary power,
To peel the chiefs, the people to devour.
These, traitor, are thy talents; safer far
Than to contend in fields, and toils of war. ”

“ In his speech from the throne he stated that "a few traitors have already joined the enemy, have been suffered to come into the country with impunity, and have been harboured and concealed in the interior." ”

“ If there is to be found within the pages of history where the government of a great, powerful and prosperous nation suffered treason to spread over one-third of the entire country, coupled with the open and revolting acts of violence that have characterized this rebellion, without the first attempt to check its destructive progress, it is not within the range of my knowledge. ”

“ If plans are conceived which may expedite the completion of our armies, for increasing our means of conquest, or of making our defeats less disastrous, why are they preceded to the throne by calumny and there stifled by the most perfidious malevolence? Can it be true that our triumphs are dreaded? ”

“ Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours; ⁠49
For we no longer are defensible. ”

“ And when she saw the king standing upon the step in the entrance, and the princes, and the companies about him, and all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding with trumpets, and playing on instruments of divers kinds, and the voice of those that praised, she rent her garments, and said: Treason, treason.
23:14. And Joiada the high priest going out to the captains, and the chiefs of the army, said to them: Take her forth without the precinct of the temple, and when she is without let her be killed with the sword. ”

“ In the United States, a day on which a military company assembles for drill, especially in public.
Traitor. One who violates his allegiance and betrays his country; one guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to its enemy, or any fort or place intrusted to its defense, or who surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished; or one who takes arms and levies war against his country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering his country.
Traitorous. Guilty of treason; treacherous; perfidious; faithless; as, a traitorous officer or subject. ”

“ And the dark hill shall bristle with sabre and spear,
While one tyrant remains to forge manacles here.
IV.
The riderless war-steed careers o'er the plain
With a shaft in his flank and a blood dripping mane,
His gallant breast labours, and glare his wild eyes;
He plunges in torture—falls—shivers—and dies.
V.
Let the trumpets ring triumph! the tyrant is slain,
He reels o'er his charger deep pierced through the brain ”

“ Was he, sprung from the ranks, a soldier of the [590] republic, a general of the empire, after fighting thirty years under the tri-colour, to be tame and measured to squeamishness in his phrases when he saw his country invaded by foreigners, and a pretender to the throne stalking behind their bayonets beckoning his soldiers to desert their eagles, inviting his countrymen to betray their sovereign and dishonour their nation! Why the man was surrounded by traitors, and proud and scornful of danger was his spirit to strive so mightily against defeat and treason combined. ”

“ And yet this appeal to treason, this premium on a people’s disloyalty, is the regular precursor of wars, wherein destruction for its own sake, the burning of grain and villages for the [Pg 164] mere pleasure of the flames, forms almost invariably the most prominent feature. ”

“ Acknowledged cowards led armies and rushed into battle, the most faithful turned traitors, the most honest became knaves, the firm were in a continual state of vacillation, the wise showed themselves fools, and the brave ran away. ”

“ While the sublime shall tower in regal state,
The fatal scourge, the dread of all who dare
Against thy sons to plan the future war.
Though few thy troops who Conanour sustain,
The foe, though numerous, shall assault in vain. ”

“ Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third—The hall rang with cries of Treason! Treason! The patriot orator paused for an impressive moment, and then continued calmly;—may profit by their example. If this be treason make the most of it!
(His resolution was carried.)
A decade passed before the actual outbreak of the War in New England inspired Patrick Henry to the oration which concluded thus: It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace—but [96] there is no peace. The war has actually begun! ”

“ The threats of an imperious band of traitors, operating upon the fears of a weak old man, who was already implicated in the treason, drove him to the verge of the abyss into which he was willing to plunge his country, but from which, at the last moment, he drew back, dismayed at the thought of sacrificing himself. ”

“ For it is this class of people who, in time of war, will be sure to ally themselves with that power which they believe most likely will be victorious in the end, regardless of their citizenship. Any English lord or general, or any general who, to gain his end, puts a premium upon treason, will himself, under proper conditions commit treason, just as sure as he who offers a bribe is equally sure to accept one. ”

“ Before they wake and get their armour on there will have been such slaughter done that posterity will always speak of the battle of that night. Having no further confidence in life, the traitors as a last resort all subscribe to this design. Despair emboldened them to fight, whatever the result might be; for they see nothing sure in store for them save death or imprisonment. ”