Does not every sentinel at his post, does not every archer in the
front of battle, brave it, and die where his captain bids him? Who am I
that I should be chosen out of all France to be an example of fortitude?
I braved no tortures, though these I trust I would have endured with a
good heart. I was subject to threats only. Who was the Roman knight of
whom the Latin clerk Horatius tells?"
"A Latin clerk? Faith, I forget my Latin," says Mr. Brummell. "Ask the
parson, here."
"Messire Regulus, I remember, was his name. Taken prisoner by the
Saracens, he gave his knightly word, and was permitted to go seek a
ransom among his own people. Being unable to raise the sum that was a
fitting ransom for such a knight, he returned to Afric, and cheerfully
submitted to the tortures which the Paynims inflicted. And 'tis said he
took leave of his friends as gayly as though he were going to a vilage
kermes, or riding to his garden house in the suburb of the city."
"Great, good, glorious man!" cried Mr. Sterne, very much moved. "Let me
embrace that gallant hand, and bedew it with my tears! As long as honor
lasts thy name shall be remembered. See this dew-drop twinkling on my
check! 'Tis the sparkling tribute that Sensibility pays to Valor.
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