University of Virginia Library

SCENE XII.

Enter Adrian.
Adr.
Sabina, hear me.

Aquil.
[aside.]
O! cruel fortune!

Sab.
[returning.]
Ha! what would Augustus?

Adr.
And am I then so hateful to Sabina
That she would leave me thus? Depart unseen?

Sab.
O! mock me not again: you send me hence;
Forbid me ever more to appear before you.

Adr.
I send thee hence? Ah! when?—Aquilius, speak:
Did not Sabina ask to leave me?

Sab.
Heavens!
[to Aquil.]
And was it not the mandate of Augustus,
That I should part from him, and part unseen?

Aquil.
[aside.]
Silence or speech must both alike betray me.

Sab.
[to Aquil.]
Perfidious man!

Adr.
[to Aquil.]
Thou dost not answer.

Sab.
[to Aquil.]
Now
I understand thy plots, and Adrian too
Shall know—

Aquil.
[to Adr.]
Cæsar, 'tis true, I love Sabina,
And fear'd her presence might awake thy virtue,
Hence far remov'd I hop'd—

Adr.
Enough, thou traitor!
Base, undermining slave, thou Cæsar's rival!
Ho! guards, secure him.

[he is disarmed.
Aquil.
[aside.]
Unpropitious fate!

Adr.
No longer think, my spouse, of thy departure.

Sab.
Thy spouse, Augustus?

Adr.
Yes, I find my soul
Recovering now apace her wonted calm:
My duty, and the scorn of Emirena;
Her father's hatred—