Selected Poems (130 page)

OFFICER
:Lost,

Lost almost past recovery. Zames! Where

Is Zames?

MYRRHA
: Posted with the guard appointed

230

To watch before the apartment of the women.

[
Exit
OFFICER
.]

MYRRHA
[
sola
]: He’s gone; and told no more than that all’s lost!

What need have I to know more? In those words,

Those little words, a kingdom and a king,

A line of thirteen ages, and the lives

235

Of thousands, and the fortune of all left

With life, are merged; and I, too, with the great,

Like a small bubble breaking with the wave

Which bore it, shall be nothing. At the least,

My fate is in my keeping: no proud victor

240

Shall count me with his spoils.

[
Enter
PANIA
.]

PANIA
:Away with me,

Myrrha, without delay; we must not lose

A moment – all that’s left us now.

MYRRHA
:The king?

PANIA
: Sent me here to conduct you hence, beyond

The river, by a secret passage.

MYRRHA
:Then

245

He lives –

PANIA
:And charged me to secure your life,

And beg you to live on for his sake, till

He can rejoin you.

MYRRHA
:Will he then give way?

PANIA
: Not till the last. Still still he does whate’er

Despair can do; and step by step disputes

250

The very palace.

MYRRHA
: They are here, then: – ay,

Their shouts come ringing through the ancient halls,

Never profaned by rebel echoes till

This fatal night. Farewell, Assyria’s line!

Farewell to all of Nimrod! Even the name

255

Is now no more.

PANIA
: Away with me – away!

MYRRHA
: No: I’ll die here! – Away, and tell your king

I loved him to the last.

[
Enter
SARDANAPALUS
and
SALEMENES
with Soldiers.
PANIA
quits
MYRRHA
,
and ranges himself with them
.]

SARDANAPALUS
:Since it is thus,

We’ll die where we were born – in our own halls.

Serry your ranks – stand firm. I have despatch’d

260

A trusty satrap for the guard of Zames,

All fresh and faithful; they’ll be here anon.

All is not over. – Pania, look to Myrrha.

[
PANIA
returns towards
MYRRHA
.]

SALEMENES
: We have breathing time; yet once more charge, my friends –

One for Assyria!

SARDANAPALUS
: Rather say for Bactria!

265

My faithful Bactrians, I will henceforth be

King of your nation, and we’ll hold together

This realm as province.

SALEMENES
: Hark! they come – they come.

[
Enter
BELESES
and
ARBACES
with the Rebels.
]

ARBACES
: Set on, we have them in the toil. Charge!

charge!

BELESES
: On! on! – Heaven fights for us, and with us – On!

[
They charge the King and
SALEMENES
with their Troops, who defend themselves till the arrival of
ZAMES
,
with the Guard before mentioned. The Rebels are then driven off, and pursued by
SALEMENES
,
&c. As the King is going to join the pursuit,
BELESES
crosses him
.]

270

BELESES
: Ho! tyrant –
I
will end this war.

SARDANAPALUS
:Even so,

My warlike priest, and precious prophet, and

Grateful and trusty subject: – yield, I pray thee.

I would reserve thee for a fitter doom,

Rather than dip my hands in holy blood.

275

BELESES
: Thine hour is come.

SARDANAPALUS
:No, thine. – I’ve lately read,

Though but a young astrologer, the stars;

And ranging round the zodiac, found thy fate

In the sign of the Scorpion, which proclaims

That thou wilt now be crush’d.

BELESES
:But not by thee.

[
They fight
;
BELESES
is wounded and disarmed
.]

SARDANAPALUS
[
raising his sword to despatch him, exclaims
]:

280

Now call upon thy planets, will they shoot

From the sky to preserve their seer and credit?

[
A party of Rebels enter and rescue
BELESES
.
They assail the King, who, in turn, is rescued by a Party of his Soldiers, who drive the Rebels off
.]

The villain was a prophet after all.

Upon them – ho! there – victory is ours.

[
Exit in pursuit
.]

MYRRHA
[
to
PANIA
]: Pursue! Why stand’st thou here, and leavest the ranks

285

Of fellow soldiers conquering without thee?

PANIA
: The king’s command was not to quit thee.

MYRRHA
:
Me!

Think not of me – a single soldier’s arm

Must not be wanting now. I ask no guard,

I need no guard: what, with a world at stake,

290

Keep watch upon a woman? Hence, I say,

Or thou art shamed! Nay, then, I will go forth,

A feeble female, ’midst their desperate strife,

And bid thee guard me
there
– where thou shouldst shield

Thy sovereign.

[
Exit
MYRRHA
.]

PANIA
:Yet stay, damsel! She’s gone.

295

If aught of ill betide her, better I

Had lost my life. Sardanapalus holds her

Far dearer than his kingdom, yet he fights

For that too; and can I do less than he,

Who never flash’d a scimitar till now?

300

Myrrha, return, and I obey you, though

In disobedience to the monarch.

[
Exit
PANIA
.]

[
Enter
ALTADA
and
SFERO
by an opposite door
.]

ALTADA
:Myrrha!

What, gone? yet she was here when the fight raged

And Pania also. Can aught have befallen them?

SFERO
: I saw both safe, when late the rebels fled:

305

They probably are but retired to make

Their way back to the harem.

ALTADA
:If the king

Prove victor, as it seems even now he must,

And miss his own Ionian, we are doom’d

To worse than captive rebels.

SFERO
:Let us trace them;

310

She cannot be fled far; and, found, she makes

A richer prize to our soft sovereign

Than his recover’d kingdom.

ALTADA
:Baal himself

Ne’er fought more fiercely to win empire, than

His silken son to save it: he defies

315

All augury of foes or friends; and like

The close and sultry summer’s day, which bodes

A twilight tempest, bursts forth in such thunder

As sweeps the air and deluges the earth.

The man’s inscrutable.

SFERO
:Not more than others.

320

All are the sons of circumstance: away —

Let’s seek the slave out, or prepare to be

Tortured for his infatuation, and

Condemn’d without a crime.

[
Exeunt
.]

[
Enter
SALEMENES
and Soldiers, &.
]

SALEMENES
:The triumph is

Flattering: they are beaten backward from the palace,

325

And we have open’d regular access

To the troops station’d on the other side

Euphrates, who may still be true; nay, must be,

When they hear of our victory. But where

Is the chief victor? where’s the king?

[
Enter
SARDANAPALUS
,
cum suis, &c. and
MYRRHA
.]

SARDANAPALUS
:Here, brother.

330

SALEMENES
: Unhurt, I hope.

SARDANAPALUS
:Not quite; but let it pass.

We’ve clear’d the palace —