eath. O unheard-of Friendship! My
Father gave me Life, 'tis true; but you, my Friend, support my Honour.
All this for me, while I, ungrateful Man, thus seek your Life: For to my
eternal Horror be it spoke, you are the Man whom I come here to kill.

_Bon._ Ha!

_Fri._ Too true alas! there read the Warrant for your Death.

[_Gives him the Letter._]

_Bon._ 'Tis a Woman's Hand.

_Fri._ Yes, and a bad One too, they all speak fair, write foul, but mean
worse.

_Bon._ How! kill me? Sure, I dream, and this is all Delusion, or else
thou dost it only to try thy Friend.

_Fri._ O, from my Soul, I wish it were no more. But read, read on, see
how I'm fetter'd in a _Circe's_ Charms--I love beyond Imagination, love
even to Madness, and must as madly do a Deed will damn me to the hottest
Flames of Hell.

_Bon._ And woo't thou kill thy Friend for such a Woman?

_Fri._ Alas! I must, you see I am commanded, commanded too by Love; Love
more powerful than all the Sacred Ties of Friendship, therefore draw,
and guard thy self. [_Draws._

_Bon._ Not I by Heaven! What wou'dst thou have me draw and kill my
Friend?

_Fri._ There thou stab'st my Soul. O where, where is now my Resolution
fled? A fatal Blast has struck me; a sudden Horror shot me thro the
Heart; a Trembling seiz'd my Knees, that I can hardly stand, and all my
Vital Powers methinks seem dead; yet Love's the Fire must kindle all
again, therefore I charge thee draw, or naked as thou art, I will assail
thee.

_Bon._ I am defended against all that thou canst do, in having Justice
on my Side, and Friendship too to back it.

_But since Humanity now bears so sway,
To this unguarded Breast come make your way._

Strike home be sure.

[_Opens his Bosom._

_Fri._ That were a barbarous Murder.

_Bon._ How can the Effect prove different from the Cause? Or how can any
thing but damn'd Barbarity ensue a Woman's much more damn'd Design? Who
wou'd expect Reason from one that raves, or hope for Mercy in a Tyger's
Den? Believe me, _Friendly_, all this may sooner be; Mercy may sooner
dwell among the Savage Wolves and Bears, than in a Woman's Breast.

_Fri._ O, my too rigid Fate, to place me thus on such a dangerous
Precipice, that wheresoe're I turn my self for help, I see my Ruin still
before mine Eyes.

[_Seems to weep._

_Bon._ [_Pausing._] Stay--The Command which thy _Medea_ sent thee, was
to kill thy only dearest Friend, was it not?

_Fri._ Alas! it was.

_B