[Arbaces and Salemenes return their swords to the scabbards. Sal. Mine's sheathed: I pray you sheathe not yours;

Tis the sole sceptre left you now with safety. Sard. A heavy one; the hilt, too, hurts my hand.

(To a Guard). Here, fellow, take thy weapon back. Well, sirs, What doth this mean?

Beleses. The prince must answer that. Sal. Truth upon my part, treason upon theirs.

: Sard. Treason-Arbaces! treachery and

Unit'st in thy own person the worst vices Of the most dangerous orders of mankind. Keep thy smooth words and juggling homilies

For those who know thee not. Thy fellow's sin

Is, at the least, a bold one, and not temper'd By the tricks taught thee in Chaldea. Beleses. Hear him,

My liege-the son of Belus! he blasphemes The worship of the land which bows the knee Before your fathers.

Sard. Oh! for that I pray you Let him have absolution. I dispense with The worship of dead men; feeling that I Am mortal, and believing that the race From whence I sprung are what I sce

them-ashes.

Sal. My lord, and king, and brother, I pray ye pause.

Sard. Yes, and be sermonized, And dinn'd, and deafen'd with dead men and Baal,

And all Chaldea's starry mysteries.
Beleses. Monarch! respect them.
Sard. Oh! for that-I love them;
I love to watch them in the deep blue vault,
And to compare them with my Myrrha's eyes;
love to see their rays redoubled in
The tremulous silver of Euphrates' wave,
As the light breeze of midnight crisps the
broad

nounce ye,

Although upon this breath of mine depends Your own; and, deadlier for ye, on my fears. But fear not for that I am soft,not fearful— And so live on. Were I the thing some think me,

Your heads would now be dripping the last drops

Of their attainted gore from the high gates
Of this our palace into the dry dust,
Their only portion of the coveted kingdom
They would be crown'd to reign o'er-let
that pass.

As I have said, I will not deem ye guilty,
Nor doom ye guiltless. Albeit, better men
Than ye or I stand ready to arraign you;
And should I leave your fate to sterner
judges,

And proofs of all kinds, I might sacrifice Two men, who, whatsoe'er they now are,

By earthly power omnipotent; but innocence Must oft receive her right as a mere favour.

Sard. That's a good sentence for a homily, Though not for this occasion. Prithee keep it To plead thy sovereign's cause before his people.

Beleses. I trust there is no cause. Sard. No cause, perhaps; But many causers:-if ye meet with such In the exercise of your inquisitive function On earth, or should you read of it in heaven In some mysterious twinkle of the stars, Which are your chronicles, I pray you note, That there are worse things betwixt earth and heaven

Than him who ruleth many and slays none; And, hating not himself, yet loves his fellows Enough to spare even those who would not spare him,

Were they once masters - but that's doubtful. Satraps!

Your swords and persons are at liberty To use them as ye will-but from this hour I have no call for either. Salemenes! Follow me.

[Exeunt Sardanapalus, Salemenes, and the Train, leaving Arbaces and Beleses.

The night the same we destined. He hath changed

Nothing, except our ignorance of all
Suspicion into such a certainty
As must make madness of delay.
Arbaces. And yet-

Beleses. What, doubting still? Arbaces. He spared our lives-nay,more, Saved them from Salemenes.

Beleses. And how long

Will he so spare? till the first drunken minute.

Arbaces. Or sober, rather. Yet he did it
nobly;

Gave royally what we had forfeited
Basely-

Beleses. Say bravely.

Arbaces. Somewhat of both perhaps. But it has touch'd me, and, whate'er betide. I will no further on.

Beleses. And lose the world!

lives to such

A king of distaffs!

Arbaces. But no less we owe them;

And I should blush far more to take the grantor's!

Beleses. Thou mayst endure whate'er thou wilt, the stars

Have written otherwise.

Arbaces. Though they came down, And marshall'd me the way in all their brightness,

I would not follow.

Beleses. This is weakness-worse Than a scared beldam's dreaming of the

dead,

And waking in the dark.—Go to—go to. Arbaces. Methought he look'd like Nimrod as he spoke,

Beleses. Have you finish'd? Arbaces. Yes

I'll on alone.

Arbaces. Alone!

Beleses. Thrones hold but one.

Arbaces. But this is fill'd.

Beleses. With worse than vacancy

Beleses. I told you that you had too much despised him,

And that there was some royalty within him. What then? he is the nobler foe.

Arbaces. But we

The meaner:-Would he had not spared us! Beleses. So

Wouldst thou be sacrificed thus readily? Arbaces. No- but it had been better to have died

Than live ungrateful.

Beleses. Oh, the souls of some men! Thou wouldst digest what some call treason, and

Fools treachery — and, behold, upon the sudden,

Because, for something or for nothing, this
Rash reveller steps, ostentatiously,
Twixt thee and Salemenes, thou art turn'd
Into-what shall I say?- Sardanapalus!
I know no name more ignominious.
Arbaces. But

An hour ago, who dared to term me such
Had held his life but lightly-as it is,
I must forgive you, even as he forgave us
Semiramis herself would not have done it.
Beleses. No the queen liked no sharers
of the kingdom,
Not even a husband.

Arbaces. I must serve him truly-
Beleses. And humbly?

Arbaces. No, sir, proudly-being honest. I shall be nearer thrones than you to heaven; And if not quite so haughty, yet more lofty.

You may do your own deeming-you have codes,

And mysteries, and corollaries of Right and wrong, which I lack for my direction,

Was willing even to serve you, in the hope To serve and save Assyria. Heaven itself Seem'd to consent, and all events were friendly,

Even to the last, till that your spirit shrunk Into a shallow softness; but now, rather Than see my country languish, I will be Her saviour or the victim of her tyrant, Or one or both, for sometimes both are one: And if I win, Arbaces is my servant.

Arbaces. Your servant!

Beleses. Why not? better than be slave, The pardon'd slave of she Sardanapalus.

Beleses. Yes, to the gates That grate the palace, which is now our prison,

No further.

Arbaces. Thou hast harp'd the truth indeed!

The realm itself, in all its wide extension, Yawns dungeons at each step for thee and me.

Beleses. Graves!

Arbaces. If I thought so, this good sword should dig

One more than mine.

Beleses. It shall have work enough: Let me hope better than thou angurest; At present let us hence as best we may. Thou dost agree with me in understanding This order as a sentence?

Arbaces. Why, what other
Interpretation should it bear? it is
The very policy of orient-monarchs-
Pardon and poison-favours and a sword-
A distant voyage, and an eternal sleep.
How many satraps in his father's time-
For he I own is, or at least was, bloodless-
Beleses. But will not, can not be so now.
Arbaces. I doubt it.

How many satraps have I seen set out
In his sire's day for mighty vice-royalties,
Whose tombs are on their path! I know
not how,

But they all sicken'd by the way, it was
So long and heavy.

Beleses. Let us but regain

The free air of the city, and we'll shorten The journey.

Arbaces. "Twill be shorten'd at the gates, It may be.

Beleses. No; they hardly will risk that. They mean us to die privately, but not Within the palace or the city-walls, Where we are known and may have partisans: If they had meant to slay us here, we were No longer with the living. Let us hence. Arbaces. If I but thought he did not mean my lifeBeleses. Fool! hence-what else should despotism alarm'd

Mean? Let us but rejoin our troops, and

march.

Arbaces. Towards our provinces? Beleses. No; towards your kingdom. There's time, there's heart, and hope, and power, and means,

Which their half-measures leave us in full scope.

Away!

Let us not leave them time for further council.

Our quick departure proves our civic zeal; Our quick departure hinders our good escort, The worthy Pania, from anticipating The orders of some parasangs from hence Nay,there's no other choice but – hence,I say.

[Exit with Arbaces, who follows reluctantly.

Enter SARDANAPALUS and SALEMENES. Sard. Well, all is remedied, and without bloodshed,

That worst of mockeries of a remedy; We are now secure by these men's exile. Sal. Yes,

As he who treads on flowers is from the adder
Twined round their roots.

Sard. Why, what wouldst have me do?
Sal. Undo what you have done.
Sard. Revoke my pardon?

Sal. Replace the crown now tottering on your temples.

Sard. That were tyrannical.
Sal. But sure.

Sard. We are so.

Though oft reproving, sufferance of my follies.

If I have spared these men against thy counsel,

The advice was sound; but, let them live: we will not

Cavil about their lives-so let them mend

them.

Their banishment will leave me still sound

sleep,

Which their death had not left me.

Sal. Thus you run

The risk to sleep for ever, to save traitorsA moment's pang now changed for years of crime.

Still let them be made quiet.

Sard. Tempt me not:

My word is past.

Sal. But it may be recall'd.
Sard. 'Tis royal.

Sal. And should therefore be decisive. This half-indulgence of an exile serves But to provoke-a pardon should be full, Or it is none.

Sard. And who persuaded me After I had repeal'd them, or, at least, Only dismiss'd them from our presence, who Urged me to send them to their satrapies? Sal. True; that I had forgotten; that is, sire,

If they e'er reach their satrapies-why, then, Reprove me more for my advice.

Sard. And if

They do not reach them-look to it!-in

Hard but as lofty as the rock, and free From all the taints of common earth, while I Am softer clay, impregnated with flowers. But as our mould is, must the produce be. If I have err'd this time, 'tis on the side Where error sits most lightly on that sense, I know not what to call it; but it reckons With me ofttimes for pain, and sometimes pleasure;

A spirit which seems placed about my heart
To court its throbs,not quicken them, and ask
Questions which mortal never dared to
ask me,

Nor Baal, though an oracular deity-
Albeit his marble-face majestical
Frowns as the shadows of the evening dim
His brows to changed expression,till at times
I think the statue looks in act to speak.
Away with these vain thoughts, I will be
joyous-

And here comes Joy's true herald.

Myrrha. Ay, my good lord.

Sard. For my own part, I should be Not ill content to vary the smooth scene, And watch the warring elements; but this Would little suit the silken garments and Smooth faces of our festive friends. Say, Myrrha,

Art thou of those who dread the roar of clouds?

Myrrha. In my own country we respect their voices

As auguries of Jove.

Sard. Jove-ay, your Baal-
Ours also has a property in thunder,
And ever and anon some falling bolt
Proves his divinity, and yet sometimes
Strikes his own altars.

Myrrha. That were a dread omen
Sard. Yes-for the priests. Well, we
will not go forth

Beyond the palace-walls to-night, but make Our feast within.

Myrrha. Now, Jove be praised! that he Hath heard the prayer thou wouldst not hear. The gods

Are kinder to thee than thou to thyself, And flash this storm between thee and thy foes,

To shield thee from them.

Sard. Child, if there be peril,

Methinks it is the same within these walls As on the river's brink.

Myrrha. Not so, these walls

Are high and strong, and guarded. Treason

has

To penetrate through many a winding way, And massy portal! but in the pavilion There is no bulwark.

Sard. No, nor in the palace, Nor in the fortress, nor upon the top Of cloud-fenced Caucasus, where the eagle

sits

Nested in pathless clefts, if treachery be: Even as the arrow finds the airy king, The steel will reach the earthly. But be calm:

The men, or innocent or guilty, are
Banish'd, and far upon their way.
Myrrha. They live, then?
Sard. So sanguinary? Thou!
Myrrha. I would not shrink
From just infliction of due punishment
On those who seek your life: wer't otherwise,
I should not merit mine. Besides, you heard
The princely Salemenes.

Sard. This is strange;

The gentle and the austere are both against me,

And urge me to revenge.

Myrrha. "Tis a Greek virtue.
Sard. But not a kingly one —

on't; or,

- I'll none

If ever I indulge in 't, it shall be
With kings-my equals.

Myrrha. These men sought to be so.