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0£ their attainted gore from the high gatesOf this our palace, into the dry dust,
Their only portion of the coveted kingdomThey would be crown’d to reign o’er—let thatpiass.
As I have said, I will not deem ye guilty,
Nor doom ye guiltless. Albeit better menThan ye or I stand ready to arraign you ;
And should I leave your fate to sterner judges,And proofs of all kinds, I might sacrificeTwo men, who, whatsoe’er they now are, wereOnce honest. Ye are free, sirs.
Arb* Sire, this clemency —
Bel. (interrupting him). Is worthy of yourself!and, although innocent,
We thank——
Sar. Priest! keep your thanksgivings
for Belus;
His offspring needs none.
Bel. But being innocent-
Sar. Be silent.—Guilt is loud. If ye are loyal,Je are injured men, and should be sad, not grate-ful.
Bel. So we should he, were justice always donejSy earthly power omnipotent j but innocenceMust oft receive her right as a mere favour.
Sar, That’s a good sentence for a liomily,Though not for this occasion. Prithee keep it.To plead thy sovereign’s cause before his people.Bel. I trust there is no cause.
Sar. No cause , perhaps 5
But many causers:—if ye meet with suchIn the exercise of your inquisitive functionOn earth, or should you read of it in heavenIn some mysterious twinkle of the stars,
Which are your chronicles, I pray you note,
That there are worse things betwixt earth andheaven
Than him who ruleth many and slays none ;
And, hating not himself, yet loves his fellowsEnough to spare even those who would not sparehim
Were they once masters—but that’s doubtful.Satraps !
Y'our swords and persons are at libertyTo use them as ye will—but from this hourI have no call for either. Salemenes!
Pollow me.
[Exeunt Sardanapalus, Salemenes , andthe Tram, &c., leaving Arbaccs andBeleses.
Arb. Beleses ?
Bel. Now, what think you ?
Arb. That we are lost.
Bel. That we have Von the kingdom.
Arb. What ? thus suspected—with the swordslung o'er us
But by a single hair, and that still wavering,
To be blown down by liis imperious breathWhich spared us—why, I know not.
Bel. Seek not why;
Eut let us profit by the interval.
The hour is still our own—our power the same—The night the same we destined. He hathchanged
Nothing except our ignorance of allSuspicion into such a certaintyAs must make madness of delay.
Arb. And yet-
Bel. What, doubting still ?
A rb. He spared our lives, nay, more,
Saved them from Salemenes.
And how lougWill he so spare ? till the first drunken minute.
Arb. Or sober, rather. Yet he did it nobly;Gave royally what we had forfeitedBasely-
Bel. Say bravely.
Arb. Somewhat of both, perhaps,
But it has touched me, and, whate’er betide,
I will no further on.
Bel. And lose the world !
Arb. Lose anything except my own esteem.
Bel. I blush that we should owe our lives to saichA king of distaffs!
Arl>. But no loss we owe them ;
And I should blush far more to take the gran tor’s.Bel. Thou may’st endure whate’er thou wilt—the stars,
Have written otherwise.
Arb. Though they came down,
And marshall’d me the way in all their brightness,I would not follow.
Bel. This is weakness—woi*se
Than a scared beldam's dreaming of the dead,And waking in the dark.— Go to—go to.
Arb. Methoughtlie look’d like Nimrod as hospoke,
Even as the proud imperial statue standsLooking the monarch of the kings around it,
And sways, while they but ornament, the temple.Bel. I told you that you had too much despisedhim,
And that there was some royalty within him—What then ? he is the nobler foe.
Arb. Bnt we
The meaner.—Would lie had not spared us !
Bel So—
Wouldst thou bo sacrificed thus readily ?
Arb. No—but it had been better to have diedThan live ungrateful.
Bel. Oh, the souls of some men !
Tliou wouldst digest what some call treason, andFools treachery—and, behold upon the sudden,Because for something or for nothing, thisRash reveller steps, ostentatiously,
’Twixt thee and Salemenes, thou art turnedInto—what shall I say ?—Sardanapalus !
I know no name more ignominious.
Arb. But
An hour ago, who dared to term me suchHad held his life but lightly—as it is,
I must forgive you, even as he forgave us—Semiramis herself would not have done it.
Bel. No—the Queen liked no sharers of thekingdom,
Not even a husbaud.
Arb. I must serve him truly-
Bel. And humbly?
Arb. No, sir, proudly, being honest,
I shall be nearer thrones than you to heaven ;And if not quite so haughty, yet more lofty.
You may do your own deeming—you have codes,And mysteries, and corollaries ofRight and wrong, which I lack for* my direction,And must pursue but what a plain heart teaches.And now you know me.
Bel. Have you finish’d ?
vy jtiu juu.
Bel. And would, perhaps, betray as wellAs quit me.
Arb. That’s a sacerdotal thought,
And not a soldier’s.
BYRON’S WORKS.Ihl.