 | The Olympiad |  |
130
SCENE XIV.
Enter Amyntas.Amyn.
Megacles is dead.
Lyc.
Say'st thou, Amyntas!
Amyn.
'Tis, alas! too true.
Lyc.
Ha! wherefore!—Say, what impious hand has dar'd
Cut short a life so precious? Let me find him,
He shall be made a monument of vengeance
To all mankind.
Amyn.
Forbear thy search, and know
'Twas Lycidas that kill'd him.
Lyc.
Me?—Thou rav'st!
Amyn.
O would to Heaven I did! wandering but now
In search of thee, amid these trees I heard
A sudden groan, and hastening tow'rds the sound,
Beheld a man who turn'd his sword unsheath'd
Against his breast, and stood prepar'd to fall
Upon the fatal point: I ran to save him,
Held him from death, and snatch'd the weapon from him:
But when I saw the face of Megacles,
Think how we both remain'd; recovering soon,
What madness urges thee to seek thy death?
I would have said, but ere I could begin,
131
And sigh'd full deeply from his inmost heart)
“I cannot, will not longer bear the light,
“Depriv'd of Aristea; ten long years
“I've liv'd for her! 'Tis Lycidas, alas!
“Unknowing kills me: yet he wrongs me not;
“This life was once his gift, and he resumes it.”
Lyc.
Alas! my friend—Go on—
Amyn.
This said he vanish'd
Swift as a Parthian shaft. Thou see'st yon' rock,
Whose lowering front o'ershades Alpheus' stream:
Like lightning thither speeding, from the summit
He leap'd, and headlong plung'd amid the flood.
In vain I cried for help, the waves receiv'd him,
And opening, swift in circling eddies whirl'd,
Then sudden clos'd again; the echoing banks
Return'd the sound, and he was seen no more.
Lyc.
What dreadful image rises to my sight!
Amyn.
O let us seek at least those dear remains
That once contain'd such treasure of a soul:
'Tis the last office that afflicted friendship
Can pay his memory!
[Exit.
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