I feel your fuff'rings, and my heart grows fonder.
Now bring the pris'ners to receive their fentence.
Juftice cries loud for vengeance on your crimes:
Say, have you ought to plead to ward the blow,
Ere I enroll your names among the dead?

Hyd. That I defign'd to bathe these hands in blood, Even in thy blood, O king, I dare confefs,

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And glory in th' attempt. I know thy power;
I know that death, with all his dreadful tortures,
Stands ready at thy nod. Give then the fignal,
For I unmov'd can face the ghaftly terror.
How is thy wifdom foil'd! Prepare to follow.
Think not with us our enterprize is loft:
A king shall bleed to pacify our ghosts.
Come, lead to death. Spend all thy wrath on us.
The raging tyger bites the fhaft that wounds him,
And fpares the man who threw it. I have done.

Phra. Thefe are the starts and ravings of despair.
Think't thou by threats to force me into mercy?
Hyd. I grow impatient; lead me to my fate.
Phra. Know you that I have life within my power?
Hyd. I know the utmost of thy power is death.
Mag. Ye Gods avert his words, and fave the king!
Phra. What faid he? Speak again.

Hyd. Death is my choice.
Phra. I will be fatisfy'd.

Hyd. I've faid too much.

Phra. Say more, or torture shall extort it from you. Hyd. Let torture do its worst. You dare not try it. Mag. If memory can recal the folemn speech, These were his very words:

A king fhall bleed to pacify our ghofts.

The raging tyger bites the fhaft that wounds him, But fpares the man who threw it.' Was it thus ? Hyd. Now let your wisdom fathom this deep fecret. I anfwer no more questions.

Phra. Reverend fathers,

What may these words portend? Expound the mystery. Mag. Thy facred life, O king, is ftill in danger. While juftice pours down vengeance on thefe wretches, Thefe mean fubfervient inftruments of mischief, Their leader 'fcapes, and lives for future crimes.

Hyd. 'Tis well.

All's fafe.-I'm ready.-Why is death delay'd?

Phra. Thus fpeaks the voice of mercy from my lips. Th' irrevocable fentence is not fign'd,

And ftill there's room for hope. Attend, and live:
By this bright fceptre, by the throne of Media,
By yon great light that rules the rolling year,
If you lay ope the depth of this foul treafon,
And point me out that undetected villain,
I fwear, to grant you life and liberty.

Speak now, or death fhall feal your lips for ever.
Hyd. The royal word is giv'n, and I accept it.
The king fhall live, and all his foes fhall perish.
Danger ftands near the throne. How blind is juftice
The Perfian prince!

Phra. Sophernes!

Hyd. He's a traytor.

"Twas he that put the dagger in my hand..

So. Now I have betray'd. O love of life!
Where was my resolution ? I'm a coward;

And cowards can endure a life of fhame.

Phra. Sophernes !-Let ftrong proof confirm your charge;

I must have proof.

Hyd. Call in my fellow-prifoners.

Soph. What can set bounds to man's impiety,
And where is virtue fafe? Accus'd thus falfely,
With all the ftrongest circumftance of guilt,
By one I know not! Heav'n has then determin'd
That I must fall. Shall man conteft with Jove?
'Tis all in vain. The will of Fate be done.

Hyd. Those who accus'd us, brib'd with Perfian gold, Conceal'd the author of our enterprize.

Enter Confpirators.

Know ye that man?

ift Confp. Would he had been unknown.

Hyd. The king has trac'd our mischief to the fource Who was it prompted you to this attempt? Had ye not views to fet a nation free?

And to restore him to his crown. and kingdom?

1ft Confp. By him we fell, 'tis juft that he fall with us. 2d Confp. So, now one ruin has involv'd us all. Phra. Death is the lot of those that thirst for blood. Conduct them hence.-This hour prepare to fuffer, [Exeunt Confpirators.

Ungrateful prince!

Soph. Since 'tis the will of heaven

To load me with calamities and shame,

Since the most fearching eye cannot difcern
The heart of man; O where fhall I find justice!
I am a ftranger, in adverfity,

Bereft of wealth and power, without a friend.

Phra. Hence, base diffembler. Take him from my
prefence.

When hypocrites are ftript of virtue's plumes,
Vice then appears more hideous and deform'd.
Back to thy dungeon, to remorfe and death.

Soph. Vain are excufe and folemn proteftation;
How fhall my words prevail, and truth appear,
When there's a crowd of witneffes against me!
The guilty perifh with remorfe and horror,
But innocence ne'er feels the fting of death.
Death is a bleffing to adverfity;

Anxiety, calamity, and forrow,

And all the daily fretting cares of life,

Are fhook from off our fhoulders, and we rest.

[Exit Sophernes guarded. Hyd. Safety now guards the throne, and Media's happy.

Phra. I ratify my word, and give you life,

I give you liberty; but on conditions.

Those I fhall fend you foon; and then you're free.
O Sun! I thank thee; thy all-feeing eye

Has trac'd the villain through his fecret ways,
And now the hand of juftice is upon him.
Ara. Media rejoice.

All. May the king live for ever!

Phra. Proclaim a feftival for feven days fpace;
Let the court fhine in all its pomp and luftre:
Let all our ftreets refound with fhouts of joy;
Let mufick's care-difpelling voice be heard;
The fumptuous banquet and the flowing goblet

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Shall warm the cheek, and fill the heart with gladness :
For Media's foes are put to fhame, and death.
Aftarbe fhall fit fovereign of the feaft,

That queen of beauty fhall direct our pleasures.
I'll to her bower.-I would have no attendance..
[Exeunt Phraortes, &c.

Enter Dorafpe.

Dor. Inform me, what has paft ?

Ara. The queen's conjectures

The king has now confirm'd. The Perfian prince, That hypocrite, is known, and prov'd a traytor, And leader of that crew of vile affaffins.

But fee the queen.-The king is gone to feek her. Excufe my hafte; for duty calls me hence.

Enter Aftarbe.

[Exit.

Aft. 'Twas downright arrogance. I faw his fcorn. A lover reads the thought of every look,

And needs no comment or interpreter.

What woman can forgive that worst of infults?

Not ev'n the most deform'd of all our fex

Can bear contempt. And fhall I pardon it?
To pardon it, is to infult myfelf,

And own that I deferve it. [afide.] Know you ought
Of what the king in judgment has determin'd?
Dor. Sophernes was accus'd.
Aft. Was he found guilty?
Dor. Yes, prov'd a traytor.
Aft. Then I'm fatisfy'd.

Dor. How one affliction crowds upon another,
To punish this ungrateful man!

Aft. What mean you?

Dor. It is confirm'd among the captive women (Who now attend to pafs before the prefence) His wife was flain in battle.

Aft. Would he were dead!

Yet were he dead, would he die in my thoughts ?
Talk to me, speak; leave me not to reflection.
[To Dorafpe.
Yet what will talk avail ?-I've loft attention.
Were her words foft and foothing as the lyre,

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Or ftrong and sprightly as th' enlivening trumpet,
I could hear nought but confcience. Would he were dead!
You fhall not leave me.

Dor. See, the king returns.

Enter Phraortes.

[Exit.

Phra. Welcome, my queen; how my heart springs to meet thee !

Each day, each hour, thy beauty grows upon me,
Ev'n while I gaze, fome undiscover'd charm
Opens itself, and wounds my heart anew.
Rejoice, Aftarbe; Media is deliver'd :

The gathering ftorm that threaten'd defolation,
Is over-blown, and all is now ferene.

Then let us give our future days to pleasure;
My ev'ry pleasure is compris'd in thee.

Aft. Be firm in justice, nor give way to mercy,
'Tis the mind's frailty, and the nurse of crimes.
Punish and root out treason from the land.
Phra. Sophernes was their chief.

Aft. Ungrateful villain !

Phra. How he deceiv'd me!

Aft. Your too easy nature

Muft always harbour mischiefs in your empire.
Does he ftill live?

Phra. His death is fix'd and fign'd.

Aft. Each hour he lives, your people doubt your juftice.

Would you deter the populace from crimes,
Let punishment be fudden. That's true mercy.
Phra. He never fhall behold another fun.
But why should cares of ftate intrude upon us?
Aft. Why this reproof? In what have I deferv'd it?
All my concern was for the peace of Media,
And for your fafety. I have faid too much.

Phra. What has Aftarbe afk'd, that I refus'd ?
Thy beauty has all power. Who waits without ?
Go; let the captives be difmifs'd the palace,

[Speaks at the door. The king refigns his privilege of choice. Should the felected beauties of the world [To Aftarbe. In full temptation ftand before my prefence,