University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

Scene First

—A Street in Jericho.
Officers leading two Criminals, (with their faces covered) to Execution, a crowd following.—A fire seen at a distance.
1 Offi.
Now try your spells. ye magians of the Nile!
Try your Egyptian charms! implore your Gods
To loose your chains! evoke the water nymphs
To waft their liquid treasures on the winds
From Jordan's sacred flood, to quench yon flames!
Forbid the rising zephyrs to disperse
Your ashes thro' the sky, for they will hear
That voice which wields these elements at will,
Bid the firm centre yawn, and cast abroad
Her baleful damp, to quench the rising blaze
And deaden with cold touch the vital lamp
In every bosom! ye are dumb, methinks!—
The thunder of your eloquence is mute!
The light'ning of your eyes, that sent around
Pale terrour thro' the trembling state, is gone!
Where are your factions now, that lin'd the streets
And roar'd defiance to their gracious lords
Your shouting crowd?—they follow you along
In abject silence! they who seem'd to doubt
The power of Vesta, they who scorn'd her laws,
With vile ingratitude her gifts receiv'd
Blaspheming the kind donor, learn at last
The impotence of those fallacious Gods
Who late (they hop'd) would loose their galling chains
And sweep away the majesty of state
Down the swoln tide of anarchy!

1 Can.
Great Vesta!
Are these the Hebrew spies? are these the men
From whose terrific eye the warriour fled
Amaz'd, and scatter'd thro' th'assembled state
Their panic fears?—And is it thus at last
The God of Israel vindicates his slaves?

1 Offi.
Learn thou obedience to thy country Gods;
Nor, tho' they seem to slumber, think their wrongs
Forgot! for thee, for all th'offending crew
Who lately seem'd to waver in their faith
They only claim these victims, tho' no less
Than them ye have deserv'd the penal fire!
Go home! be thankful, and adore the power
Who spares the guilty crowd, and gives them space
For penitence,—lead on!—the rising flame
Rebukes our stay! Amasa! let thy care
Disperse the crowd.

[Exit with the Captives and Guards.
2 Offi.
Ye who expect to see
Their God descend to quench the flaming pile
And snatch his servants in a humid cloud
Away,—attend the spectacle! your presence
Will shew your want of faith in Vesta's power
And by your doubts, the seniors of the state
Will judge your loyalty, but ye, whose minds
Submissive to the Gods, repose your faith
On what ye have already seen, the bonds
And sentence of those formidable men
Disperse, and bless the Gods at home.

[Exit Canaanites—one remains with the Officer.
2 Can.
By thee
Amasa! let me not be rashly deem'd
Too idly curious, if I long to know
How the strange revolution found effect
So soon? what unknown energy has turn'd
The popular tide from clamorous mutiny
To speechless fear? In social confidence
We still have liv'd! thy secret thoughts to me
And mine to thee, were manifest as light,
Since the first sacred flame of friendship glow'd
In our congenial minds, in early youth:
I know, and I approve the seniors arts
To keep the vulgar herd in tramels due
Of reverential awe to them. To this
Perhaps the seeming miracle we owe
For I have watch'd the doors of Adriel still
Since the Patricians fled; the doors are clos'd
And all is silent, those Egyptian youths
Could not without the witness of those eyes
Have 'scap'd, nor do they wish to 'scape!

2 Offi.
Art thou
An infidel to Vesta's boundless power?
Could not her potent breath condense the air
Or check the visual ray, and wrap the forms
Of these bold Israelites in tenfold night?
Could she not send from her creative womb
Th'illusive image of applauding crowds
Shouting revolt, and anarchy, to lead
Those Hebrews, in the simulated pomp
Of triumph to the snare, till in the grasp
Of sovereign power, they found their feelings pay
The forfeit of their cheated sight?—

2 Can.
To me
(Who know the arts of Priests) dost thou harangue
On demon-fraud, and spectres, sent to lead
The wildred wretch astray? come, come my friend!
This will not pass with me; the crowd, you know
Is fled, now all is safe, and silent round—
Unfold your stratagem, nor doubt my prudence
I owe the state too much to blast her views
By letting this important secret 'scape!

2 Offi.
I know thee and can trust thee: these who past
And who, by this, have felt the penal fire
Are not of Hebrew race!

Can.
Must then the pile
Of this important state, by guiltless blood
Be thus cemented, while the guilty spies
Escape?

2 Offi.
They were not guiltless, tho' their guilt
Was venial; they were Idumean slaves
The captives of the war. Necessity
Of state oft opes the door to wider wrongs,
The measure had its full effect; you find
How soon it chac'd the giddy crowd away:
Nought else could have assur'd their loyalty
One hour!

Can.
And what becomes of Abdon now
The factious demagogue? the Partizan
Of Israel? he who lately seem'd to look
Contemptuous down on Senates and on Kings
From his gigantic pitch of factious power,
Like him who rides the winds, and bids them range
O'er land and sea, at pleasure? does he feel
His cloudy throne sink from him?

2 Offi.
Yet he knows not
His loss, but (like a man, whose limbs are lopt
In battle, in the fond illusive dream
Still seems to stretch the mutilated arm
And lanch in air the visionary spear
Or bend the shadowy bow,) so he elate
With democratic pride, harangues the lords
In all the extacy of holy zeal
Nor knows what victims in the rising flames
Mock the fine music of his labour'd style
With dying groans! But let us haste and learn
With what respect the masters of the state
Receive his insolent message.

[Exeunt.
Scene—The Senate House.
King of Jericho, and Senators seated.
ELIEL PRIEST of VESTA—ABDON.
Eliel
to Abdon.
[Exit Abdon.

1 Sen.
Sedition seems
To sleep at present, or if yet awake
It dares not own its name, or seems at least
Calmly to wait his answer!

2 Sen.
Let him perish!—
Scatter his blood among the trembling crowd
The shower will lay the tempest, and assuage
Their pamper'd fury! they have neither head
Nor heart, if he be gone!

King.
Another time
Will serve for that, but, fathers, what avails
Our care at home, while with collected rage
Fermenting long, while twice four hundred moons
Have chang'd the face of night, with all the charms
Of Nile, deep freighted, and the plagues that haunt
The burning waste of Araby, the foe
Subdues the mind within, and hangs his spells
Over our trembling heads! must we renounce
The boons of Nature? drink the running stream
And live on pulse? with frozen apathy
Turn from the glance of beauty, and resign
The thrilling transport, if it costs a groan
Or transient pang, to husbands, brothers, sires?—
Must we do this, because a figur'd stone
Deep mark'd with dread and sanguinary laws
(Beyond the power of mortal to observe)
Dropt from a cloud at Sinai? Shall desire
Die in our bosoms, like the withering flower
'Cause some unfeeling demon has proclaim'd
Thou shalt not covet? If the vagrants liv'd
(As they pretend) like grashoppers, on dew
Is that a reason we should spare the flocks
And lusty droves, that roam a thousand hills
Or share them with our slaves?

2 Sen.
We must preserve
The joys for which we live, or life itself
Is scarcely worth the purchase!—Nature made us
For nobler purpose than to sit and pine
For joys beyond our reach, and feast our souls
On Virtue's visionary bliss, on joys
Beyond the tomb! the heartless multitude
('Tis true,) are taught a lesson which befits
Their station, and their views! to them their priests
Must dwell on themes of duty and of right
And bind their souls in shadowy chains at will,
Unbroken till of late. But now some foe
To our repose has sow'd sedition's seed
Among us; even the crowd pretend to see
And feel.

4 Sen.
These tumults are almost compos'd
Thanks to the terrours of the penal flame!
Their habits of allegiance soon will reach
Their old predominance!

1 Sen.
Would we could soothe
Those angry powers, that seem to rule the winds
And waves!

Eliel.
And let them rule the winds and waves!
What! must we dash the overflowing bowl
Of blessing from our lips, because some fiends
Ride the rude winds in wanton merriment
To shake the coral groves below the deep,
And bids the huge and cumbrous wave recede
Before the wild aereal cavalry?—
What if the blue stol'd nymphs of Jordan's flood
By the seductive demon of the air
With Zephyrean pipe allur'd, command
Their fickle urns at will to ebb and flow?
'Tis all Egyptian charms, collusive spells!
Between the demons of the elements
And Moses, their great archimage, contriv'd!
Or his successor! would they cause our dread,
Let them unhinge the world, misplace the poles.
Bid them unroot old Lebanon, and hurl
The hills, with all their load, thro' endless space
Crumble the centre, and dissolve the globe
To its original atoms! can their spells
Do this?
Let them produce a sample of their art
And shake old Vesta's time-establish'd throne!
Till then our faith will stand secure and firm
As Tabor or as Carmel, while the breast
Of our great mother can support the weight!

King.
Speak your opinion, fathers! is your vote
Defiance, or submission? will ye die
Free as ye liv'd, or bend the servile neck
To Pharoah's bondmen?

Senators.
We submit? we cringe
To Pharoah's bondmen! we detest the thought!
Let them dispatch their embassy! display
Their false credentials! we despise them both
While those proud rampires stand!

Enter a MESSENGER, who whispers ELIEL.
Eliel.
Be Abdon call'd.

King.
What message brings your envoy?

Eliel.
All's compos'd—
Let us to Vesta's Fane, and there return
Thanks for the great deliverance!

King.
Lead the way!

[Ex. Omn.