Enter MYRRHA.

Sar. You here! Who called you?

Myr.

No one-but I heard

Far off a voice of wail and lamentation,
And thought-

Sar.

It forms no portion of your duties

To enter here till sought for.

Myr.

Though I might,

Perhaps, recall some softer words of yours

(Although they too were chiding), which reproved me, Because I ever dreaded to intrude ;

Resisting my own wish and your injunction

To heed no time nor presence, but approach you
Uncalled for :-I retire.

Sar.

Yet stay-being here. I pray you pardon me: events have soured me Till I wax peevish-heed it not: I shall

Soon be myself again.

Myr.

440

I wait with patience,

Scarce a moment 450

What I shall see with pleasure.

Sar.

Before your entrance in this hall, Zarina,
Queen of Assyria, departed hence.

Myr. Ah!

Sar.

Wherefore do you start?

Myr.

Did I do so?

Sar. 'Twas well you entered by another portal, Else you had met. That pang at least is spared her! Myr. I know to feel for her.

That is too much,

Sar.
And beyond nature-'tis nor mutual i

Nor possible. You cannot pity her,
Nor she aught but-

Myr.

Despise the favourite slave?

Not more than I have ever scorned myself.

460

And lord it o'er the heart of the World's lord?

Sar. Scorned! what, to be the envy of your sex,

Myr. Were you the lord of twice ten thousand worlds

As you are like to lose the one you swayed

i. — natural.—MS. M. The first edition reads "mutual."]

I did abase myself as much in being

Your paramour, as though you were a peasant—
Nay, more, if that the peasant were a Greek.

Sar. You talk it well

Myr.

Sar.

And truly.

In the hour

470

Of man's adversity all things grow daring
Against the falling; but as I am not

Quite fall'n, nor now disposed to bear reproaches,
Perhaps because I merit them too often,

Let us then part while peace is still between us.
Myr. Part!

Sar.

Have not all past human beings parted, And must not all the present one day part?

Myr. Why?

Sar. For your safety, which I will have looked to, With a strong escort to your native land;

And such gifts, as, if you had not been all

The Queen is gone:

A Queen, shall make your dowry worth a kingdom.
Myr. I pray you talk not thus.
Sar.
You need not shame to follow. I would fall
Alone I seek no partners but in pleasure.
Myr. And I no pleasure but in parting not.
You shall not force me from you.

Sar.

It soon may be too late.

Myr.

Think well of it—

So let it be;

For then you cannot separate me from you.

Sar. And will not; but I thought you wished it.
Myr.

Sar. You spoke of your abasement.
Myr.

And I feel it

481

I!

491

Deeply-more deeply than all things but love.
Sar. Then fly from it.
Myr.
"Twill not recall the past-
"Twill 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.

Sar. Your courage never—
r-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 wrongsi
These men would bow me down with.
Can I forget this night, even should I live
To add it to the memory of others.

Never, never

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 :

500

510

520

[He kisses her. 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

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

i. Is heavier sorrow than the wrong which.-[MS. M. erased.]

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 embarked.

Sar.
Sal.

And well? say that much.

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

Pale face and glittering eye, after a glance

Upon her sleeping children, were still fixed
Upon the palace towers as the swift galley

530

Yes.

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, marshalled
By their two leaders, are already up

In arms again; and, serrying their ranks,
Prepare to attack: they have apparently
Been joined by other Satraps.

Sar.

Let us be first, then.

Sal.

What! more rebels?

541

That were hardly prudent 550 Now, though it was our first intention. If

By noon to-morrow we are joined by those
I've sent for by sure messengers, we shall be
In strength enough to venture an attack,
Aye, 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

Strewed 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.

560

570

[A trumpet sounds without.

Hark!

Let us

"Tis bound

Sar.

'Tis healed-I had forgotten it. Away!

A leech's lancet would have scratched me deeper; i
The slave that gave it might be well ashamed

To have struck so weakly.

Sal.

Strike with a better aim !

Sar.

But if not, they will only
A task they might have

Sal. I am with you.
Sar.

Now, may none this hour

581

Aye, if we conquer ; leave to me spared their king. Upon them! [Trumpet sounds again.

Ho, my arms! again, my arms! [Exeunt.

i. A leech's lancet would have done as much.-[MS. M. erased.]