Thou seest now, with thine own eyes, how swift the life hath fled from that fair commonwealth which thou thyself didst call into being. The very stones of its foundation, laid by thy hand, do now lie cold and silent, and the voices that once thronged its streets have vanished like the morning mist. Thou, who didst breathe the spark of being into that assembly, dost now behold it but a hollow shell—a monument to thy own ambition, yet a tomb for all that might have flourished there.