Let filial duty and obedience plead For his dear life! To my last prayer give heed!

FELIX.

Too much thou lovest an unworthy lord!

PAUL.

Thou gavest him my hand, 'twas at thy word I gave both love and duty; what I give I take not back; oh, Polyeucte must live!

For his dear sake I quenched another flame Most pure. Is he my lord alone in name?

O, by my blind and swift obedience paid To thy command--be thy hard words unsaid!

I gave thee all a daughter had to give, Grant, father, this one prayer--Let Polyeucte live!

By thy stern power, which now I only fear, Make thou that power benignant, honoured, dear!

Thou gav'st that gift unsought,--that gift restore!

I claim it at the giver's hand once more!

FELIX.

Importunate! Although my heart is soft, It is not wax,--and these entreaties oft Repeated waste thy breath, and vex mine ear, For man is deaf to what he will not hear.

_I am the master!_ This let all men know, And if thou force that note thou'lt find 'tis so.

Prepare to see thy cursed Christian fool, Do thou caress when I have scourged the mule,-- Go! vex no more a loving father's ear, From Polyeucte's self win what thou hold'st so dear.

PAUL.

In pity!----

FELIX.

Leave me, leave me here alone!-- Say more--my goaded heart will turn to stone; Vex me no more--I will not be denied!

Go, save thy madman from his suicide!

(Exit Pauline.)

How met Nearchus death?

ALBIN.

The fiend abhorred He hailed,--embraced: 'For Christ!' his latest word; No sigh, no tear,--he pa.s.sed without amaze Adown the narrow vale with upward gaze.

FELIX.

And he--his friend?

ALBIN.

Is, as I said, unmoved He looks on death but as a friend beloved, He clasped the scaffold as a guide most sure, And, in his prison, he can still endure.

FELIX.

Oh, wretched that I am!

ALBIN.

All pity thee.

FELIX.

With reason greater than they know. Ah, me!

Thought surges upon thought, and has its will, Care, gnawing upon care, my soul must kill; Love--hate--fear--pain: I am of each the prey, I grope for light, but never find the day!

Oh, what I suffer thou canst not conceive, Each pa.s.sion rages, but can ne'er relieve; For I have n.o.ble thoughts that die still-born, And I have thoughts so base my soul I scorn.

I love the foolish wretch who is my son, I hate the folly which hath all undone; I mourn his death,--yet, if I Polyeucte save, I see of all my hopes the cruel grave!

'Gainst G.o.ds and Emperor too sore the strife, For my renown I fear,--fear for my life.

I must myself undo to save my son, For, should I spare him, then am I undone!

ALBIN.

Decius a father is, and must excuse A father's love--oh, he will not refuse!

FELIX.

His edict is most clear:--'All Christians are my foes.'

The higher be their rank the more the evil grows.

If birth and state be high, their crime shows more notorious, If he who shield be great, his fall the more inglorious; And if I give Nearchus to the flame Yet stoop to shield my own--thrice d.a.m.ned my name!

ALBIN.

If by thy fiat he cannot escape the grave, Implore of Decius' grace the life thou canst not save.

FELIX.

So would Severus work my ruin quite-- I fear his power, his wrath,--for might is right-- If crime with punishment I do not mate.

How high soe'er, worth what it may, I fear his hate, For he is man, and feels as man, and I Once spurned his suit with base indignity.

Yes, he at Decius' ear would work may woe, He loves Pauline, thus Polyeucte is his foe: All weapons possible to love and war, And those who let them rust but laggards are.

I fear--and fear doth give our vision scope-- E'en now he cherisheth a tender hope; He sees his rival prostrate in the dust, So, as a man he hopes--because he must.

Can dark despair to love and hope give place To save the guilty from deserved disgrace?

And were his worth so matchless, so divine, As to forbear all ill to me and mine Still I must own the base, the coward hope, 'Gainst which my strength is all too weak to cope, That hope whose phoenix ashes yet enthrall The wretch who rises but once more to fall; Ambition is my master, iron Fate, I feel, obey, adore thee, while I hate!

Polyeucte was once my guard, my pride, my shield, Yet can I, by Severus, weapons wield, Should he my daughter wed, more tried, more true: What wills Severus--that will Decius do.

Upheld by him, e'en Fortune I defy And yet I shrink!--for them, thrice base were I!

ALBIN.

Perish the word! It ne'er was made for thee, But wilt thou deal just meed to treachery?

FELIX.

I go to Polyeucte's cell,--though my poor breath Should there be spent in vain to avert his death; Then, then my fated child her strength shall try.

ALBIN.

What wilt thou do if both he still defy?

FELIX.

O, press me not in agony so great!

To thee alone I turn--resistless Fate!

ACT IV--POLYEUCTE. CLEON. THREE OTHER GUARDS

POLY.

What is thy will?

CLEON.

Pauline would see my lord.

POLY.

Ah, how my heart quails at that single word!