e sky. The_ ASTROLOGER, _pointing upwards, comes down the steps
slowly_.

ASTROLOGER. These meteors flame the dazzling doom of kings.

[AGRIPPINA _rises apprehensively._

XENOPHON. Caesar is dead!

AGRIPPINA. The drug hath found his heart.
[_To_ LOCUSTA, _who steals forward._
Locusta, take your price and steal away!
Sound on the trumpet. Go! your part is done.

[_Exit_ LOCUSTA.
[_Trumpet is sounded._

That gives the sign to the Praetorians
Upon the instant of the Emperor's death.

[_Answering trumpets are heard._

Hark! trumpets answering through all the city.
Xenophon, you and I are in this death
Eternally bound. This husband have I slain
To lift unto the windy chair of the world
Nero, my son. Your silence I will buy
With endless riches; but a hint divulged----

XENOPHON. O Agrippina, Empress, fear not me!

AGRIPPINA. Meantime his child, his heir, Britannicus,
Must not be seen lest he be clamoured for.
So till the sad Chaldean give the sign
Of that so yearned for, favourable hour,
When with good omens may my son succeed,
The sudden death of Claudius must be hid!
Then on the instant Nero be proclaimed
And Rome awake on an accomplished deed.

XENOPHON. Then summon Claudius' musicians in
To play unto the dead as though he breathed.

AGRIPPINA. Call them! A lulling music let them bring.

[_Exit_ XENOPHON.
[_She turns to_ ASTROLOGER.

O thou who readest all the scroll of the sky,
Stands it so sure Nero my son shall reign?

ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign.

AGRIPPINA. What lurks behind these words?
There is a 'but' still hovering in the stars.

ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign.

AGRIPPINA. The half! I'll know the rest.

ASTROLOGER. Peer not for peril!

AGRIPPINA. Peril! His or mine?

ASTROLOGER. Thine then.

AGRIPPINA. I will know all, however dark.
Finish what did so splendidly begin.

ASTROLOGER. Nero shall reign, but he shall kill his mother.

AGRIPPINA. Kill me, but reign!

_Enter_ SENECA

SENECA. The trumpet summoned me,
And I am here.

AGRIPPINA. Seneca! Speak it low!
Caesar is dead! Nero shall climb the throne.

SENECA. I will not ask the manner of his death.
In studious ease I have protested much
Against the violent taking of a life.
But lost in action I perceive at last
That they who stand so high can falter not,
But live beyond the reaches of our blame;
That