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Ha! what means?

      salome.

       Perhaps even now she dies.

      mazael.

       And wilt thou dare

       To do a deed so desperate? If the king—

      salome.

       The king assists me in the work of vengeance,

       And has consented: Zares is arrived

       At Solyma; my instrument of wrath

       Waits for his victim: know, the time, the place,

       The hand to execute, are ready all:

       To-day it must be done.

      mazael.

       Hast thou then gained

       At last the victory? Could the king believe thee?

       Spite of his passion, will he yield up all,

       And act as thou commandest?

      salome.

       Not so: my power

       Is more confined: scarce could I urge to vengeance,

       With all my arts, his long-reluctant soul,

       But I availed me of his absence from her:

       Whilst Herod lived, exposed to all her charms,

       Thou knowest I led a life of wretchedness,

       Of doubt and fear, uncertain of my fate;

       When, by a thousand crooked paths, at last

       I found a passage to his heart, and thought

       I had secured it, Mariamne came;

       And, when he saw her, all was lost again;

       My arts all baffled by a single glance:

       Yes, the proud queen was mistress of my life,

       And might have taken it: had she known the way

       To manage well her easy lover’s fondness,

       Herod had signed the mandate for another,

       And not for Mariamne; then the blow

       I meant for her had fallen on Salome:

       But I have made her pride assist my vengeance,

       And I have only now to point the dart,

       Which her own hand hath fashioned, to destroy her.

       Thou mayest remember well the fatal time

       That blasted all our hopes; when, Antony

       Subdued. Augustus took the reins of empire,

       Each Eastern monarch trembled on his throne:

       Amongst the rest my hapless brother feared,

       With his protector, he had lost his crown.

       Resistance now was vain, and naught remained

       But to address the conqueror of the world

       In lowliest terms, and ask forgiveness of him.

       Call back that dreadful day, when Herod, driven

       Even to despair, beheld proud Mariamne

       Spurn at his offered love and kind farewell;

       Heard her with anguish heap reproaches on him;

       Call for a father’s and a brother’s blood,

       Shed by her tyrant husband: Herod flew

       To me, and told his griefs; I seized the moment

       Propitious to my vengeance, and regained

       A sister’s power o’er his distressed heart;

       Inflamed his rage, and sharpened his despair;

       Dipped in fresh poison the envenomed dart

       That pierced his soul: then, desperate in his wrath,

       Thou heardest him swear to exterminate the race

       Of Hebrews, and destroy its poor remains;

       Condemn the mother, and cut off her sons

       From their inheritance: but soon to rage

       Succeeded love; one look from her disarmed

       His vengeance. I, with double eagerness,

       Pressed his departure, and at length prevailed:

       He left her; from that hour I was successful;

       My frequent letters kept up his resentment,

       And, absent from her, all his rage returned:

       He blushed in secret for his weakness past,

       And by degrees, as I removed the veil,

       His eyes were opened: Zares caught with me

       The favorable hour, and painted her

       In blackest colors; told him of her power,

       Her interest, friends, and the seditious faction,

       The partisans of the Asmonæan race.

       But I did more, I raised his jealousy;

       He trembled for his glory, and his life:

       Continual treasons had alarmed his soul,

       And left it ever open to suspicion:

       Whate’er he fears, still ready to believe,

       He is not able to distinguish guilt

       From innocence; in short, I fixed his soul,

       Guided his hand, and made him sign the mandate.

      mazael.

       ’Twas nobly done: but what will Varus say,

       The haughty prætor, will he see unmoved

       A deed so daring? he’s thy master here,

       And, unconfirmed by Rome, thy power is nothing.

       From Varus’ hand thy brother must receive

       His crown; nor can he act as sovereign here

       Till the proud prætor shall restore it to him.

       Will Varus, thinkest thou, e’er permit a queen,

       Left to his care, to fall a sacrifice?

       I know the Romans well, they ne’er forgive

       Such rude contempt of their authority.

       Thou wilt bring down the storm on Herod’s head;

       Their thunder’s always ready; those proud conquerors

       Are jealous of their rights, and take, thou knowest,

       Peculiar pleasure in the fall of kings.

      salome.

       Fear not for Herod, Cæsar is his friend,

       And Varus knows it, therefore will respect him:

       Perhaps this Roman means to manage all,

       But be it as it may, my aim is vengeance;

       I’m on the verge of glory or of shame;

       To-morrow, nay, to-day may change the scene:

       Who knows if e’er hereafter I shall find

       An hour propitious to me, who can tell

       If Herod will be steady to his purpose?

       I know his weakness, and I must prevent it,

       Nor give him time to say, it shall not be.

       When it is done, let Varus rage, and Rome

       Pour forth her threats, it shall not damp my joys:

       The Romans are not here my worst of foes;

       No, I have more to fear from Mariamne;

       I must subdue her rival powers, or perish:

       But Varus comes this way, we

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