University of Virginia Library

SCENE the Second.

Enter Amintas in Fetters with Urania.
Amin.
My gallant Maid! this generosity,
Above thy Sex, and much above my merit,
I never can repay: my dear Urania,
Thou didst out-do thy Sex before in beauty,
In all the Charms, that makes 'em so ador'd:
But this last act, this noble mark of Love,
Begets a reverend wonder in my Soul,
And I beheld thee as some sacred thing,
That—this way should be worship'd—

[Kneels and kisses her hand
Ura.
I'm glad you have so kind a sense of that
Which ev'ry Maid that lov'd like me wou'd do:
What cou'd you less expect—ah my Amintas,
That fatal night before our Wedding-day,
Being alarm'd by the Enemy,
And you were sent to try your force with theirs;
My Heart foretold your fate; and that same night
Whose darkness vail'd my blushes all alone,
Drest like a Youth I hasted from the Court,
And being well mounted, soon o'ertook the Army,
When all unknown, I got so neer your person,
That in the fight I had the glory twice
To serve you, when your Horses being kill'd
I still presented you with fresh, whose Riders
Thy Valour had dismounted.

Amin.
Oh Gods! wert thou that boy,
Whom oft I said, I thought was sent from Heaven,
And begg'd t'encouter when the Fight was ended?

Ura.
The same, 'twas all you'd time to say; for after that
Venturing too far, they took you Prisoner.

Amin.
Oh with what shame I look upon your bounty,
Which all my Life's too little to acknowledge:
What follow'd then, my dear fair Urania?

Ura.
I gladly wou'd have been a Prisoner too,
But I appear'd a poor dejected boy,
That was not worth their Fetters:
—Then I resolv'd upon this last adventure,
To make my applications to the Princess,
Knowing her noble nature;
To try (since mighty Ransoms were refus'd)
What simple Love would do, and in my way
I lighted on a Druid, who in's youth
Had liv'd in Courts, but now retir'd to Shades,
And is a little Monarch o'er his Flocks,
To him I told my story, who encourag'd me in my resolv'd design,
And I so luckily have made an interest
In Cleomena's Heart,
These Chains she'as given me freedom to dismiss,
And you must only wear Loves Fetters now:
[She takes off his Chains.
—Come, haste, Amintas, from this horrid place,
And be thy self again, appear in Arms.
The Scythians are encampt within thy view,
And ere three births of Day the Armies meet;
Th'event of which, I at the Druids Cell
Will wait; sending continual Vows to Heaven
For thy dear safety: there when the Fight is done
I wish to meet thee:
—But now your Country and your King expect you,
And I love glory equal to Amintas.

Amin.
But yet the generous bounty of the Princess
Obliges here, no less than duty there;
I know not how the Gods of War to move
To grant me Victor, or the Vanquisht prove;
My Heart to either is not well inclin'd,
Since—vanquisht I am lost, conquering unkind.

[Exeunt.