[102]
For what can I do more
than grieve? more than weep? more than consider your safety bound up with my
own? The same men who gave me safety are the only men who have the power to
give it to you. But I (rise up and stand forward, I beg you,) will cling to
you and embrace you; and I will profess myself, not only one who prays to
the judges to protect your fortunes, but one who will be your companion and
partner in them. And, as I hope, no one will be of so cruel and inhuman a
disposition, nor so unmindful—I will not say of the services which
I have done the good, but of the services which the good have done
me—as to tear away and separate the saviour of my very existence
as a citizen from me. I beg of you, O judges, to save a man who has been,
not loaded with kindnesses by me, but the guardian of my safety. I am not
striving in his behalf with wealth, and authority, and influence; but with
prayers, and tears, and appeals to your mercy. And his unhappy and most
virtuous father, whom you see before you, joins his entreaties to mine; we,
being as it were two parents of his, pray your mercy for our one son.
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