 | The Siege of Sinope |  |
SCENE X.
The Garden of the Palace; the Scene terminated by a dark Grove, leading to the Tomb of Mithridates, a Part of which appears at a Distance through the Trees.ARTABANES, TIGRANES.
ARTABANES.
A dreadful interval of solemn silence
Succeeds the tumult of the raging battle,
And through Sinope reigns. O'er all the city
No sound is heard, except a falling murmur,
Which, less and less, expires upon the ear,
Like the soft trembling of the settled deep,
After the storm subsides.
TIGRANES.
A calm like this
Precedes the baleful tempest. Still in arms
The troops of Athridates silent wait
Their cruel master's will.
ARTABANES.
The moments teem
Eventful, and the coming hour decides
Whether the trembling sons of Pontus bow
Beneath the yoke of foreign tyranny,
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Delighted gaze, and raise the song to heaven.
TIGRANES.
If yet Pharnaces lives, ye gods protect him!
Protect this gracious image of yourselves,
Who, midst the horrors of relentless war,
Has made a nation blest.
ARTABANES.
When fierce invasion
Roll'd like a torrent o'er th' affrighted land,
Have we not seen him, terrible in fight,
As Mars resistless, point the glittering spear,
As war were his delight? yet to his people
Gentle as Maia's son, as Themis just,
Benignant as the god who strikes the lyre,
And leads, serene, the radiant pomp of day.
TIGRANES.
Behold the queen! Along the verdant grove,
Which from the noontide fervor shades the palace,
And, winding, leads to Mithridates' tomb,
Her footsteps haste: with wild enquiring glance
Her piercing eye pervades th' umbrageous gloom:
She stops, she listens, like the trembling hind,
Which from the hunters rage conceals her young,
And pants, alarm'd, whene'er the rustling leaf
By Zephyr's breath is fann'd.
ARTABANES.
The gates unfold:
Xiphares meets her step. Respect her sorrows;
At distance let us wait, to guard her back
With duteous care in safety to the palace.
| The Siege of Sinope | |