Myrrha. Despise the favorite slave? Not more than I have ever scorn'd myself. Sard. Scorn'd! what, to be the envy of your sex, She will recover. Pray, keep back.—[Aside.]| And lord it o'er the heart of the world's lord? Uncall'd for: I retire. Sard. Yet, stay-being here. I pray you pardon me: events have sour'd me Till I wax peevish-heed it not: I shall Soon be myself again. Myrrha. I wait with patience, What I shall see with pleasure. Sard. Scarce a moment Before your entrance in this hall, Zarina, Sard. Wherefore do you start? Sard. 'Twas well you enter'd by another portal, Myrrha. Were you the lord of twice ten thousand worlds As you are like to lose the one you sway'd— Nay, more, if that the peasant were a Greck. Of man's adversity all things grow daring Perhaps because I merit them too often, parted, And must not all the present one day part? Myrrha. Why? Sard. For your safety, which I will have look'd to, With a strong escort to your native land; Myrrha. I pray you talk not thus. You need not shame to follow. I would fall 1 You shall not force me from you. It soon may be too late. Myrrha. So let it be; For then you cannot separate me from you. Sard. And will not; but I thought you wish'd it. Myrrha. I! Sard. You spoke of your abasement, Deeply more deeply than all things but love. Sard. Then fly from it. Myrrha. Twill not recal the pastTwill not restore my honour, nor my heart, No-here I stand or fall. If that you conquer, I live to joy in your great triumph; should Your lot be different, I'll not weep, but share it. You did not doubt me a few hours ago, Sard. Your courage never nor your love till now; And none could make me doubt it save yourself. Those words Myrrha. Were words. I pray you, let Be in the past acts you were pleased to praise Think we may yet be victors, and return Sits heavier on my heart than all the wrongs Can I forget this night, even should I live On which the future would turn back and And cultivate, or sigh when it could not I thought to have made my realm a paradise, Kiss me. They shall have both, but never thee! Man may despoil his brother man of all Sard. Would I felt no more Sal. Tis now too late to feel! That the rebellious Medes and Chaldees, By their two leaders, are already up Sard. What! more rebels? Sal. That were hardly prudent Sard. I detest That waiting; though it seems so safe to fight Behind high walls, and hurl down foes into Deep fosses, or behold them sprawl on spikes Strew'd to receive them, still I like it notMy soul seems lukewarm ; but when I set on them, Though they were piled on mountains, 1 A pluck at them, or perish in hot blood!— Sal. You talk like a young soldier. That's great or glittering: kingdoms fall— | Where I may pour upon them. hosts yield Sal. You must spare Friends fail-slaves fly-and all betray-To expose your life too hastily; 'tis not Like mine or any other subject's breath : Sard. Then let us end both! I'm sick of one, perchance of both. Sal. Hark! Sal. And your wound? 'Tis heal'd I had forgotten it. Away! The slave that gave it might be well To have struck so weakly. Sal. Now, may none this hour Sard. Ay, if we conquer; A task they might have spared their king. Upon them! [Trumpet sounds again. Sal. I am with you. Sard. Ho, my arms! again, my arms! [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE 1.-The same Hall of the Palace. MYRRHA and BALEA. Myrrha (at a window). The day at last has broken. What a night Hath usher'd it! How beautiful in heaven! Though varied with a transitory storm, More beautiful in that variety! How hideous upon earth! where peace and hope, And love and revel, in an hour were trampled By human passions to a human chaos, And billows purpler than the ocean's,making Know not the realms where those twin-genii (Who chasten and who purify our hearts, So that we would not change their sweet rebukes For all the boisterous joys that ever shook The air with clamour) build the palaces Where their fond votaries repose and breathe Briefly ;-but in that brief cool calm inhale Enough of heaven to enable them to bear The rest of common, heavy, human hours, And dream them through in placid suffer ance; Though seemingly employed like all the rest Of toiling breathers in allotted tasks The sunrise which may be our last? Therefore that I so watch it, and reproach Those eyes, which never may behold it more, For having looked upon it oft, too oft, Without the reverence and the rapture due To that which keeps all earth from being as fragile As I am in this form. Come, look upon it, The Chaldee's god, which, when I gaze upon, I grow almost a convert to your Baal. Balea. As now he reigns in heaven, so once on earth He sway'd. Myrrha. He sways it now far more, then; never Had earthly monarch half the peace and glory Which centres in a single ray of his. Myrrha. So we Greeks deem too; That shuts the world out. I can look no more. Balea. But they reach'd Myrrka. Yes, by surprise, and were Beat back by valour; now at once we have Courage and vigilance to guard us. Balea. May they Prosper! Myrrha. That is the prayer of many, and The dread of more: it is an anxious hour; I strive to keep it from my thoughts. Alas! How vainly! Balea. It is said the king's demeanour In the late action scarcely more appall'd The rebels than astonish'd his true subjects. Myrrha. Tis easy to astonish or appal The vulgar mass which moulds a horde of slaves: But he did bravely. Balea. Slew he not Beleses? I heard the soldiers say he struck him down. Myrrha. The wretch was overthrown, but rescued to Triumph, perhaps, o'er one who vanquish'd him In fight, as he had spared him in his peril, And by that heedless pity risk'd a crown. Balea. Hark! Myrrha. You are right; some steps approach, but slowly. Enter Soldiers, bearing in SALEMENES wounded, with a broken Javelin in his Side; they seat him upon one of the Couches which furnish the Apartment. Myrrha. Oh, Jove! Balea. Then all is over. Sal. That is false. " Hew down the slave who says so, if a soldier. Myrrha. Spare him-he's none: a inere court-butterfly, That flutters in the pageant of a monarch. Sal. Let him live on, then. Myrrha. So wilt thou, I trust. Sal. I fain would live this hour out, and the event, But doubt it. Wherefore did ye bear me here? Soldier. By the king's order. When the javelin struck you. You fell and fainted; 'twas his strict command To bear you to this hall. Twas not ill done: For, seeming slain in that cold dizzy trance, The sight might shake our soldiers-but'tis vain. I feel it ebbing! Myrrha. Let me see the wound; I am not quite skilless: in my native land. 'Tis part of our instruction. War being constant, We are nerved to look on such things. Soldier. Best extract The javelin. Myrrha. Hold! no, no, it cannot be. Myrrha. With the blood that fast must follow The extracted weapon, I do fear thy life. Sal. And I not death. Where was the king when you Convey'd me from the spot where I was stricken? Soldier. Upon the same ground, and encouraging With voice and gesture the dispirited troops Named next to the command? 1 1 Sal. Fly, then, and tell him, 'twas my last request That Zames take my post until the junction, So hoped for, yet delay'd, of Ofratanes, Satrap of Susa. Leave me here: our troops Are not so numerous as to spare your absence. Soldier. But, prince Sal. Hence, I say! Here's a courtier and A woman, the best chamber-company. As you would not permit me to expire Upon the field, I'll have no idle soldiers About my sick-couch. Hence! and do my bidding! [Exeunt the Soldiers. Myrrha. Gallant and glorious spirit! must the earth So soon resign thee? Though thinly mann'd, may still hold out against Their present force,or aught save treachery: But i' the field Myrrha. I thought 'twas the intent Of Salemenes not to risk a sally Till ye were strengthen'd by the expected succours. For the assurance of the vacant space Sard. About it straight, Sard. They are not my subjects, girl, And may be pardon'd, since they can't be punish'd. Myrrha. I joy to see this portent shakes you not. Sard. I am past the fear of portents: they can tell me Nothing I have not told myself since midnight: Despair anticipates such things. Sard. No; not despair precisely. When we know All that can come, and how to meet it, our Resolves, if firm, may merit a more noble Word than this is to give it utterance. But what are words to us? we have well nigh done With them and all things. Myrrha. Save one deed-the last And greatest to all mortals; crowning-act Of all that was-or is—or is to be— The only thing common to all mankind, So different in their births, tongues, sexes, natures, Hues, features, climes, times, feelings, intellects, Without one point of union save in this, |