Sar. Your courage never-nor your love till now; And none could make me doubt it save yourself. Those words.

Myr.

Were words. I pray you, let the proofs

Be in the past acts you were pleased to praise
This very night, and in my further bearing,
Beside, wherever you are borne by fate.

Sar. I am content: and, trusting in my cause,
Think we may yet be victors and return
To peace the only victory I covet.

To me war is no glory-conquest no

Renown. To be forced thus to uphold my right
Sits heavier on my heart than all the wrongs

These men would bow me down with. Never, never
Can I forget this night, even should I live
To add it to the memory of others.

I thought to have made mine inoffensive rule
An era of sweet peace 'midst bloody annals,
A green spot amidst desert centuries,

On which the future would turn back and smile,
And cultivate, or sigh when it could not
Recall Sardanapalus' golden reign.

I thought to have made my realm a paradise,
And every moon an epoch of new pleasures.
I took the rabble's shouts for love-the breath
Of friends for truth-the lips of woman for
My only guerdon-so they are, my Myrrha :

Kiss me.
Now let them take my realm and life!
They shall have both, but never thee!

Myr.

Man may despoil his brother man of all

No, never!

That's great or glittering-kingdoms fall, hosts yield,
Friends fail, slaves fly, and all betray-and, more

Than all, the most indebted-but a heart

[He kisses her.

That loves without self-love! "Tis here-now prove it.

Enter SALEMENES.

Sal. I sought you-How! she here again?

Sar.

Return not

Now to reproof: methinks your aspect speaks
Of higher matter than a woman's presence.

Sal. The only woman whom it much imports me
At such a moment now is safe in absence-

The queen's embark'd.

Sar.
Sal.

And well? say that much.

Her transient weakness has pass'd o'er; at least,
It settled into tearless silence: her

Yes.

Pale face and glittering eye, after a glance

Upon her sleeping children, were still fix'd
Upon the palace towers as the swift galley

Stole down the hurrying stream beneath the starlight;
But she said nothing.

Sar.

Than she has said!

Sal.

Would I felt no more

'Tis now too late to feel.

Your feelings cannot cancel a sole pang:

To change them, my advices bring sure tidings
That the rebellious Medes and Chaldees, marshall'd
By their two leaders, are already up

In arms again; and, serrying their ranks,
Prepare to attack: they have apparently
Been join'd by other satraps.

Sar.

Let us be first, then.

What! more rebels ?

Sal.
That were hardly prudent
Now, though it was our first intention. If
By noon to-morrow we are join'd by those
I've sent for by sure messengers, we shall be
In strength enough to venture an attack,
Ay, and pursuit too; but, till then, my voice
Is to await the onset.

I detest

Sar.
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 not-

My soul seems lukewarm; but when I set on them,
Though they were piled on mountains, I would have

A pluck at them, or perish in hot blood !—
Let me then charge.

Sal.

You talk like a young soldier.
Sar. I am no soldier, but a man: speak not
Of soldiership, I loathe the word, and those
Who pride themselves upon it; but direct me
Where I may pour upon them.

Sal.

You must spare

To expose your life too hastily; 'tis not

Like mine or any other subject's breath :
The whole war turns upon it—with it; this
Alone creates it, kindles, and may quench it-
Prolong it—end it.

Sar.

Then let us end both!

"Twere better thus, perhaps, than prolong either; I'm sick of one, perchance of both.

Sal.

Sar.

[A trumpet sounds without.

Hark!

Let us

Reply, not listen.

Sal.

And your wound!

Sar.

"Tis bound

"Tis heal'd-I had forgotten it. Away!

3

A leech's lancet would have scratch'd me deeper; 3
The slave that gave it might be well ashamed

To have struck so weakly.

Sal.

Strike with a better aim!

Sar.

Now, may none this hour

Ay, if we conquer;

But if not, they will only leave to me

A task they might have spared their king. Upon them!

[Trumpet sounds again.

Ho, my arms! again, my arms!

Sal. I am with you.

Sar.

3 ["A leech's lancet would have done as much."-MS.]

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I.-The same Hall in the Palace.

MYRRHA and BALEA.

Myr. (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,
Not yet resolved to separate elements—
'Tis warring still! And can the sun so rise,
So bright, so rolling back the clouds into
Vapours more lovely than the unclouded sky,
With golden pinnacles, and snowy mountains,
And billows purpler than the ocean's, making
In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth,
So like we almost deem it permanent;
So fleeting, we can scarcely call it aught
Beyond a vision, 'tis so transiently
Scatter'd along the eternal vault: and yet

It dwells upon the soul, and soothes the soul,
And blends itself into the soul, until

Sunrise and sunset form the haunted epoch
Of sorrow and of love; which they who mark not,
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

4

["Sunrise and sunset form the epoch of
Sorrow and love; and they who mark them not
Can ne'er hold converse with," &c.-MS.]

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 sufferance
Though seemingly employ'd like all the rest
Of toiling breathers in allotted tasks"

Of pain or pleasure, two names for one feeling,
Which our internal, restless agony

Would vary in the sound, although the sense
Escapes our highest efforts to be happy.

Bal. You muse right calınly: and can you so watch
The sunrise which may be our last?

Myr.
It is
Therefore that I so watch it, and reproach
Those eyes, which never may behold it more,
For having look'd 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.

Bal. As now he reigns in heaven, so once on earth He sway'd.

Myr.

He sways it now far more, then; never Had earthly monarch half the power and glory

Which centres in a single ray of his.

So we Greeks deem too ;

Bal. Surely he is a god!
Myr.
And yet I sometimes think that gorgeous orb

Must rather be the abode of gods than one
Of the immortal sovereigns. Now he breaks
Through all the clouds, and fills my eyes with light
That shuts the world out. I can look no more.

Bal. Hark! heard you not a sound?
Myr.

They battle it beyond the wall, and not

No, 'twas mere fancy;

5 ["Of labouring wretches in allotted tasks."-MS.]