 | Daniel |  |
229
5. PART V.
SCENE, The Palace.PHARNACES, SORANUS.
PHARNACES.
'Tis done!—success has crown'd our scheme, Soranus;
And Daniel falls into the deep-laid toils
Our prudence spread.
SORANUS.
That he shou'd fall so soon,
Astonishes ev'n me! What! not a day,
230
His rash devotions? Madly thus to rush
On certain peril quite transcends belief!
When happen'd it, Pharnaces?
PHARNACES.
On the instant:
Scarce is the deed accomplish'd. As he made
His ostentatious pray'r, ev'n in the face
Of the bright God of day, all Babylon
Beheld the insult offered to Darius.
For, as in bold defiance of the law,
His windows were not clos'd. Our chosen bands,
Whom we had plac'd to note him, strait rush'd in,
And seiz'd him in the warmth of his blind zeal,
Ere half his pray'r was finish'd. Young Araspes,
With all the wild extravagance of grief,
Prays, weeps, and threatens. Daniel silent stands,
With patient resignation, and prepares
To follow them.—But see! the king approaches!
231
How's this? deep sorrow sits upon his brow!
And stern resentment fires his angry eye!
DARIUS, PHARNACES, SORANUS.
DARIUS.
O, deep-laid stratagem! O, artful wile!
To take me unprepar'd! to wound my heart,
Ev'n where it feels most tenderly, in friendship!
To stab my fame! to hold me up a mark
To future ages, for the perjur'd prince,
Who slew the friend he lov'd! O Daniel! Daniel!
Who now shall trust Darius? Not a slave
Within my empire, from the Indian main
To the cold Caspian, but is more at ease
Than I, his monarch! I have done a deed
Will blot my honour with eternal stain!
Pharnaces! O, thou hoary sycophant!
Thou wily politician! thou hast snar'd
Thy unsuspecting master!
232
Great Darius!
Let not resentment blind thy royal eyes.
In what am I to blame? who cou'd foresee
This obstinate resistance to the law?
Who cou'd foresee that Daniel wou'd, perforce,
Oppose the king's decree?
DARIUS.
Thou, thou foresaw'st it!
Thou knew'st his righteous soul wou'd ne'er endure
So long an interval of pray'r. But I,
Deluded king! 'Twas I shou'd have foreseen
His stedfast piety. I shou'd have thought
Your earnest warmth had some more selfish source,
Something that touch'd you nearer, than your love,
Your counterfeited zeal for me.—Thou knew'st
How dear I held him; how I priz'd his truth!
Did I not chuse him from a subject world,
Unbless'd by fortune, and by birth ungrac'd,
233
Was he not rich in independent worth?
There, there he fell! If he had been less great,
He had been safe. Thou cou'dst not bear his brightness;
The lustre of his virtues quite obscur'd,
And dimm'd thy fainter merit. Rash old man!
Go, and devise some means to set me free
From this dread load of guilt! Go, set at work
Thy plotting genius to redeem the life
Of venerable Daniel!
PHARNACES.
'Tis too late.
He has offended 'gainst the new decree;
Has dar'd to make petition to his God,
Altho' the dreadful sentence of the act
Full well he knew. And by th' establish'd law
Of Media, by that law irrevocable,
Which he has dar'd to violate, he dies!
234
Impiety! presumption! monstrous pride!—
Irrevocable! Is there ought on earth
Deserves that name? Th' eternal laws alone
Of Oromasdes claim it. But, alas!
All human projects are so faintly fram'd,
So feebly plann'd, so liable to change,
So mix'd with error in their very form,
That mutable and mortal are the same.
But where is Daniel? Wherefore comes he not
To load me with reproaches? to upbraid me
With all the wrongs my barb'rous haste has done him?
Where is he?
PHARNACES.
He prepares to meet his fate.
This hour he dies, for so the act decrees.
235
Suspend the bloody sentence! Bring him hither!
Or rather let me seek him, and implore
His dying pardon, and his parting pray'r.
| Daniel | |