University of Virginia Library

SCENE VI.

THAMYRIS, PHARNACES, ARTABANES.
PHARNACES.
And dost thou live?

THAMYRIS.
And art thou here to ask?
What god has led thee safe?

PHARNACES.
The god who rules
The battle's rage, has sav'd and sent me to thee.

THAMYRIS.
Forgive my woman's terrors; hast thou conquer'd?
Where are thy troops? Should cruel Athridates!—
Alas! my lord! in this defenceless palace,
The palace of thy fathers, he commands;
Though now withdrawn, his guards may soon return:
Here safety dwells not.

PHARNACES.
The degenerate sons
Of Rome avoid the fight. I found my troops.
By numbers aw'd, retiring: at my sight,
As with new souls inform'd, they rush'd to battle,
Like the big torrent bursting every mound.
The legions stop'd; Domitius led them back,
Inglorious: in the field my faithful warriors,
All high of soul, and eager to engage,
Now wait my wish'd return.

THAMYRIS.
How didst thou pass
Sinope's gates?

PHARNACES.
Along the verdant grove
Of great Apollo, by a path unknown,
Sacred to mighty Mithridates' race,
Which to the palace leads, I came secure,
To save thee from thyself.

THAMYRIS.
Great god of day!
For this, before thy consecrated shrine,
Shall my full heart pour forth the grateful vow.

PHARNACES.
Anxious for thee, and trembling for thy fate,
I flew to abrogate the dreadful oath
My fears this morn impos'd, to bid thee live,
And trust in heaven. A gleam of smiling hope
Breaks through the cloud of black adversity,
As the fair orient ray dispels the shades
Of sable night. My brother of the war,
Cyaxares, Armenia's youthful monarch,
Weary of Roman tyranny, advances,
To aid my cause; and when the setting sun
Dips his last beams in ocean, joins my arms.

THAMYRIS.
Then heaven is just!—The powers celestial aid thee!

PHARNACES.
Fir'd by returning hope, my hardy veterans,
With fair Armenia's yet unconquer'd sons,
Will storm the Roman camp; thou, Artabanes,
Prepare my faithful people for the hour
Of conquest and revenge: let part in arms,
Ere midnight o'er the world her mantle throws,
By valiant Gordias led, expect my coming.
The queen with me departs: Eumenes too,
Whilst fair occasion smiles: conduct him hither:
He too must leave Sinope—Ha! in tears?—
Hast thou too well obey'd me! Has thy dagger!—
My fatal gift!—

THAMYRIS.
He lives.

PHARNACES.
He lives!—no more!
Daughter of Athridates! O beware!
Wake not the sleeping adder in my bosom!
Dear as I love thee, should thy woman's fears—

THAMYRIS.
What means thy fury?

PHARNACES.
Say;—where is Eumenes?
Perhaps in yonder camp—dost thou inherit
A father's baseness? has thy coward-heart
To Rome resign'd him? Giv'n him up to bondage?
To breathe a few short hours this ambient air,
The fetter'd child of shame?

THAMYRIS.
Unkind and cruel!
The iron hand of tyrant power has torn him
From these defenceless arms, like me a captive,
He looks to heaven, and to his father's sword,
For life and freedom.

PHARNACES.
My prophetic fears!
A captive! wherefore did my fondness trust
Thy woman's heart? The hero's glow of soul,
The generous thought, firm virtue's stubborn purpose,
Thy feeble bosom feels not.

THAMYRIS.
Learn to know
This heart, which beats as proudly as thy own,
At honour's god-like voice. Thou bad'st me hope;
Should that fond hope forsake me, should'st thou
Which every god avert! This heart resolv'd,
This faithful steel, a mother's ardent love,
Fearless as thine, shall pierce the tyrant's guards,
And free Eumenes.

PHARNACES.
I have wrong'd thee much,
Soul of my life! have wrong'd thy faith, thy virtue.
Canst thou forgive my rage? A parent's pangs,
The pangs of bleeding honour, rend my heart,
And fire my brain to madness.—But no more—
To yonder warring field, a nation's safety,
The voice of glory, calls me.

[Going.
THAMYRIS.
Yet, Pharnaces,
Yet one request. If, in the battle's fury,
Thou meet'st my father, turn thy sword aside,
And seek another victim.

PHARNACES.
Stop those tears,
Which, like the dew-drops on the lily's bell,
Weigh down thy drooping beauties. Does the tyrant
Deserve this waste of goodness?

ARTABANES.
Haste, my lord!
Stern Athridates comes!—a moment more
And Pontus falls.

THAMYRIS.
O save thyself, Pharnaces!
Haste to the camp, and leave us to the gods.

PHARNACES.
I go: but, in a few revolving hours,
Expect me here, to save, or perish with you.