If what I speak is meant to win thy favour.
I should have pitied thee by fate subdued:
Opprest with crimes, thy spirit would have shrunk
Under calamity, and guilt have marr'd

The noble vigour and the port of manhood.
Amidst thy triumph, does it not confound thee,
To think thou ow'st it to excess of baseness?
Thou hast prevail'd, because the generous Agis
Would not believe there could be such a traitor.
Amph. Oft have I heard, and often seen thy folly;
But now to rail is madness. With one word

I could impose on thee eternal silence.

Lysan. And would-I know thec-if thou thought'st it wise.

Even then, as now, I should contemn thy power:
But know, I fear thee not. The king is safe,
And his victorious troops at break of day

Will thunder in thine ears: thou and thy band
Will ill sustain the shock of such an host.
My life is in thy hands, but yet beware,
Thy fate depends on mine. In Lacedæmon
A prince like Agis soon will find Lysanders.
Amph. Uncertain thy predictions of the future:
Small is thy prescience, witness thy condition.--
Euxus, conduct him to yon corner tower.

Enter SANDANE.

Hail to the Queen of Sparta!

San. Yes, Amphares:

Now fortune seems to smile upon

I saw the sullen captive led along,

Sandane.

His gloomy eye-balls fix'd upon the earth.

Amph. This night, O Queen! must see the bold

conclusion

Of a design, thus far so bravely borne.
On hollow and deceitful ground we tread,
Whilst Agis lives.

San. Thou speak'st my very thoughts.
Seasons there are, Amphares, which suspend
All sanctimonious reverence and respect.
Amph. Temples, and priests, and altars shall
not save him,

If fate should drive us to the last extreme.
Meanwhile, I will employ more gentle means
To gain our ends: For sacrilege would rouse
The zealous multitude to rage and arms.
The temple is begirt with Thracian bands,
Who all access forbid and Agis knows not
What has befall'n Lysander. I will send
A subtle Spartan in Lysander's name,

Who may by specious arguments persuade him
To quit the sanctuary; and then, O Queen!
With all solemnity of pomp and form,
The assembled Ephori shall pass his doom,
And in the same decree include Lysander.

San. Think'st thou the Ephori will give the

sanction

Of their authority to Agis' death?

Amph. They will. At midnight the stern judges

meet

In Terror's temple; they have charged a herald
With orders to the troops not to advance
On pain of treason. The astonish'd people
Will crouch and tremble at that awful power,
Which draws the sword of justice on a king.
Then shall your lord's authority revive;
And like the sun, when bursting from a cloud,
With greater power and brighter splendour shine.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

LYSANDER as a Prisoner, the Thracian Guards at a distance.

LYSANDER musing, advances and speaks.

Has virtue no prerogative on earth?

And can the Gods permit the fall of Agis?
They can. 'Tis man's own arrogance arrays him
In gorgeous titles of excelling nature,

Care of the Gods, and centre of creation.
I fear I fear man's life is but a dream;
His soul a subtle essence of the blood,
A rainbow beauty, made to shine a space,
Then melt and vanish into air.

Ye mighty minds of sages and of heroes!
Epaminondas, Plato, great Lycurgus!

Who once with such transcendent glory shone,
Brighter than all the stars that deck the heavens,

Is

your celestial fire for ever quench'd,

And nought but ashes left, the sport of chance,

Which veering winds still blow about the world?

I will not think so! Yet, alas! the while
I see and feel presages that alarm.

If they prove true, if man is like the leaf,
Which falling from the tree revives no more,
I shall be shortly dust, that will not hear
Euanthe weep, nor see the shame of Sparta!
Now I'm a living man, my mind is free,
And, whilst I live and breathe, by heaven I'll act
As if I were immortal.

Enter RHESUS and EUXUS.

Rhe. See where he stands! behold him, O my brother!

The bravest and the best of human kind.

Opprest with grief and shame, and fatal love,
Indignant virtue but augments his pain.
Will not my Euxus give his aid to heave
This noble vessel from the rock it beats on ?-

[Goes up to LYSANDER.

My lord! my leader! Oh!

Lysan. My faithful Rhesus!

Comest thou to share the ruin that Lysander
Has brought upon himself, his prince, his country?