How didst thou bear thy long, long sufferings? | My life was theirs; each drop about my heart How Euph. Timoleon too Invites thee back to life. Evan. And does he still Urge on the siege? Euph. His active genius comes To scourge a guilty race. The Punic fleet, Moves o'er the deep, and mighty fleets are vanished. Euph. Ha!-hark !—what noise is that? It comes this way; Some busy footstep beats the hallowed pavement. Oh! Sir, retire-Ye powers !-Philotas!-ha! Evan. But ere he pays The forfeit of his crimes, what streams of blood Were fatal to our hopes; oppressed, dismayed, Evan. Yes, all will dare To act like men ;-their king, I gave myself Pledged to the public cause; devoted to it: lour. Euph. Yet stay; yet be advised. No plan is fixed, and no concerted measure. Evan. Forbear: the man like thee, truction To thee, to all, will follow :-hark! a sound Comes hollow murmuring through the vaulted aisle. It gains upon the ear. Withdraw, my father! All's lost if thou art seen. Phil. And, lo! Calippus Darts with the lightning's speed across the aisle. Evan. Thou at the senate-house convene my friends. Melanthon, Dion, and their brave associates, Cal. This sullen musing in these drear abodes Alarms suspicion: the king knows thy plottings, Thy rooted hatred to the state and him. His sovereign will commands thee to repair, This moment, to his presence. Euph. Ha! what means The tyrant !I obey, [Exit CAL.] and, oh ! ye powers, Ye ministers of Heaven! defend my father; Exit. SCENE I. ACT IV. Enter MELANTION and PHILOTAS. Mel. Away! no more; pernicious, vile dissembler! Phil. Wherefore this frantic rage? I climbed the rugged cliff; but, oh! thou traitor, Where is Evander! Through each dungeon's gloom I sought the good old king; the guilt is thine; May vengeance wait thee for it! Phil. Still, Melanthon, Let prudence guide thee. Melan, Thou hast plunged thee down Far as the lowest depth of hell-born crimes; Thou hast out-gone all registers of guilt; 'Beyond all fable hast thou sinned, Philotas. Phil. By Heaven thou wrong'st me: didst thou know, old man Melan. Could not his reverend age, could not His woes unnumbered, soften thee to pity? Phil. Yet wilt thou hear me? Your king still lives. Melan. Thou vile deceiver !-Lives! But where! Away; no more. I charge thee, leave me. Phil. We have removed him to a sure asylum. Melan. Removed!-Thou traitor! what dark privacy Why move him thence? The vile assassin's stab Has closed his days-calm, unrelenting villain ! I know it all. Phil. By every power above, Evander lives; in safety lives. Last night, Melan. How, Philotas! If thou dost not deceive me Phil. No, by Heaven! By every power above-But hark! those notes Enter DIONYSIUS, CALIPPUS, &c. Dion. Away each vain alarm; the sun goes down; Nor yet Timoleon issues from his fleet. There let him linger on the wave-worn beach; Here, the vain Greck shall find another Troy, A more than Hector here. Though Carthage fly, Dion. Now, speak thy purpose; what doth Her. Timoleon, sir, whose great renown in arms Is equalled only by the softer virtues Dion. Unfold thy mystery; Her. The generous leader sees, With pity sees, the wild destructive havock Of ruthless war; he hath surveyed around The heaps of slain that cover yonder field, And, touched with generous sense of human woe, Weeps o'er his victories. Dion. Your leader weeps! Then, let the author of those ills thou speak'st of, Let the ambitious factor of destruction, Timely retreat, and close the scene of blood. Why doth affrighted peace behold his standard Upreared in Sicily? and wherefore here The iron ranks of war, from which the shepherd Retires appalled, and leaves the blasted hopes Of half the year, while closer to her breast The mother clasps her infant? Her. 'Tis not mine To plead Timoleon's cause; not mine the office To justify the strong, the righteous motives, That urge him to the war; the only scope My deputation aims at, is, to fix An interval of peace, a pause of horror, That they, whose bodies on the naked shore Lie weltering in their blood, from either host May meet the last sad rites to nature due, And decent lie in honourable graves. Dion. Go tell your leader, his pretexts are vain. Let him with those that live, embark for Greece, And leave our peaceful plains; the mangled limbs Of those he murdered, from my tender care Shall meet due obsequies. Her. The hero, sir, Wages no war with those, who bravely die. I grant thy suit: soon as to-morrow's dawn [Exit Herald. Dion. Admit her to our presence. Rage and despair, a thousand warring passions, All rise, by turns, and piecemeal rend my heart. Yet every means, all measures must be tried, To sweep the Grecian spoiler from the land, And fix the crown, unshaken, on my brow. Enter EUPHRASIA. Euph. What sudden cause requires Euphrasia's presence? Dion. Approach, fair mourner, and dispel thy fears. Thy grief, thy tender duty to thy father Has touched me nearly. In his lone retreat, Euph. Vile dissembler! Detested homicide! [Aside.]—And has thy heart Felt for the wretched? Dion. Urgencies of state Abridged his liberty; but to his person Euph. The righteous gods Have marked thy ways, and will in time repay Just retribution. Dion. If to see your father, If here to meet him in a fond embrace, Will calm thy breast, and dry those beauteous tears, A moment more shall bring him to your presence. Euph. Ha! lead him hither! Sir, to move him now, Aged, infirm, worn out with toil and years→→→ No, let me seek him rather-If soft pity Together, you may serve the state and me. Euph. Oh! give the means, And I will bless thee for it, Torments have wrung the truth. Thy husband, Euph. Oh! say, speak of my Phocion ! Hath kindled up this war; with treacherous arts Inflamed the states of Greece, and now the traitor Comes, with a foreign aid, to wrest my crown. Euph. And does my Phocion share Timoleon's glory? Dion. With him invests our walls, and bids rebellion Erect her standard here. Euph. Oh! bless him, gods! Where'er my hero treads the paths of war, come With wreaths of triumph, and with conquest crowned, And his Euphrasia spring with rapture to him, Melt in his arms, and a whole nation's voice Applaud my hero with a love like mine! Dion. Ungrateful fair! Has not our sovereign will On thy descendants fixed Sicilia's crown? Shall on a nobler basis found their rights; Dion. Rush not on sure destruction; ere too late, Accept our proffered grace. The terms are these; little Of his exalted soul. With generous ardour Euph. Better for him to sink at once to rest, Than linger thus beneath the gripe of famine, In a vile dungeon, scooped, with barbarous skill, Deep in the flinty rock; a monument Of that fell malice, and that black suspicion, Dion. Ha! beware, Nor with vile calumny provoke my rage. Euph. Whate'er was laudable, whate'er was worthy, Sunk under foul oppression; freeborn men Dion. Obdurate woman! obstinate in ill! Here ends all parley. Now your father's doom Is fixed, irrevocably fixed. Euph. Thy doom, perhaps, May first be fixed: the doom that ever waits The fell oppressor, from a throne usurped Hurled headlong down. Think of thy father's fate At Corinth, Dionysius! Dion. Ha! this night Evander dies; and thou, detested fair! Thou shalt behold him, while inventive cruelty Euph. This night, perhaps, [Exit. Shall whelm thee down, no more to blast crea tion. -In this Euph. All hail, ye caves of horror !· gloom Divine content can dwell, the heartfelt tear, Which, as it falls, a father's trembling hand Will catch, and wipe the sorrows from my eye. Thou power supreme! whose all pervading mind Guides this great frame of things; who now behold'st me, Who, in that cave of death, art full as perfect As in the gorgeous palace, now, while night Broods o'er the world, I'll to thy sacred shrine, And supplicate thy mercies to my father. Who's there?-Evander?-Answer-tell me speak Enter PHOCION, from the Tomb. Speak of Evander! tell me that he lives, Pho. Heart-swelling transport! Euph. Support me! reach thy hand! Pho. Once more I clasp her in this fond embrace! Euph. What miracle has brought thee to me? Pho. Love Inspired my heart, and guided all my ways. Euph. Oh! thou dear wanderer! But wherefore here? Why in this place of woe? My tender little one, Pho. Your boy is safe, Euphrasia; lives to In Sicily; Timoleon's generous care Euph. My father lives sepulchred, ere his time, Here in Eudocia's tomb; let me conduct thee. Pho. I came this moment thence. ! Euph. And saw Evander ? And have they, then-have the fell murderers-- Thy Phocion calls; the gods will guard Evander, And save him, to reward thy matchless virtue. Enter EVANDER and MELANTHON. Evan. Lead me, Melanthon, guide my aged steps: Where is he? Let me see him. Pho. My Euphrasia ! Thy father lives!-Thou venerable man! Euph. These agonies must end me; ah, my father! Again I have him; gracious Powers! again Oh! let me thus, thus strain you to my heart. Pho. Protected by a daughter's tender care, By my Euphrasia saved! That sweet reflection Exalts the bliss to rapture. Euph. Why, my father, Why thus adventure forth? The strong alarm O'erwhelmed my spirits. Evan. I went forth, my child, When all was dark, and awful silence round, To throw me prostrate at the altar's foot, And crave the care of Heaven for thee and thine. Melanthon there Enter PHILOTAS. Euph. Philotas! ha! what meansPhil. Inevitable ruin hovers o'er you! The tyrant's fury mounts into a blaze; Unsated yet with blood, he calls aloud For thee, Evander; thee his rage hath ordered This moment to his presence. His Evan. Lead me to him: presence hath no terror for Evander. I'll perish rather. But the time demands And guilt but serves to goad his tortured mind To turn the hour of peace to blood and horror? Euph. I know the monster well: when specious seeming Becalms his looks, the rankling heart within Teems with destruction. Like our mount Etna, When the deep snows invest his hoary head, And a whole winter gathers on his brow, Looking tranquillity; even then, beneath, The fuelled entrails summon all their rage, Till the affrighted shepherd round him sees The sudden ru n, the volcano's burst, Mountains hurled up in air, and molten rocks, And all the land with desolation covered. Melan. Now, Phocion, now, on thee our hope Fly to Timoleon; I can grant a passport; Pho. Evander, thou, and thou, my best Eu Both shall attend my flight. Melan. It were in vain ; We will remain, safe in the cave of death; And give this arm the sinew that it boasted guide The battle's rage, and, ere Evander die, Euph. Enough of laurelled victory your sword Hath reaped in earlier days. Evan. And shall my sword, When the great cause of liberty invites, Remain inactive, unperforming quite? Youth, second youth rekindles in my veins: Though worn with age, this arm will know its office; Will shew that victory has not forgot Acquaintance with this hand. And yet-O shame! It will not be the momentary blaze Sinks, and expires: I have survived it all; Survived my reign, my people, and myself. Euph. Fly, Phocion, fly; Melanthon will conduct thee. Melan. And when the assault begins, my faithful cohorts Shall form their ranks around this sacred dome Pho. And my poor captive friends, my brave companions Taken in battle, wilt thou guard their lives? Melan. Trust to my care: no danger shall assail them. Pho. By Heaven, the glorious expectation swells Timoleon thunders at your gates; the rage, Evan. Yet, ere thou go'st, young man, Attend my words: though guilt may oft provoke, |