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Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest by George Henry Borrow
page 15 of 779 (01%)
still brighter in renown than thy past! Or if thy doom be at hand,
may that doom be a noble one, and worthy of her who has been styled
the Old Queen of the water! May thou sink, if thou dost sink, amidst
blood and flame, with a mighty noise, causing more than one nation to
participate in thy downfall! Of all fates, may it please the Lord to
preserve thee from a disgraceful and a slow decay; becoming ere
extinct a scorn and a mockery for those self-same foes who now, though
they envy and abhor thee, still fear thee, nay, even against their
will, honour and respect thee!

Arouse thee, whilst yet there is time, and prepare thee for the combat
of life and death! Cast from thee the foul scurf which now encrusts
thy robust limbs, which deadens their force, and makes them heavy and
powerless! Cast from thee thy false philosophers, who would fain
decry what, next to the love of God, has hitherto been deemed most
sacred, the love of the mother land! Cast from thee thy false
patriots, who, under the pretext of redressing the wrongs of the poor
and weak, seek to promote internal discord, so that thou mayest become
only terrible to thyself! And remove from thee the false prophets who
have seen vanity and divined lies; who have daubed thy wall with
untempered mortar, that it may fall; who have strengthened the hands
of the wicked, and made the hearts of the righteous sad. O, do this,
and fear not the result, for either shall thy end be a majestic and an
enviable one, or God shall perpetuate thy reign upon the waters, thou
old Queen!

George Borrow,--and this is the last of his virtues with which I shall
weary you,--had a true English heart. He could make friends with anybody
and be at home anywhere, but though he had a mighty thirst he had never,
in the words of the elder Pitt, 'drunk of the potion described in poetic
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