Malignant Jove, to drag me back to-day!
Relentless Fate, to quench hope's dawning ray!
Take back your gifts! One boon alone I crave,
That only boon to none denied--the grave.
Yet would I see her, breathe one last good-bye,
Would hear once more that voice before I die!
My latest breath would still my homage pay,
That memory mine, when lost to realms of day.

FABIAN.
Yet think, my lord--

SEV.
Oh, I have thought of all;
What worser ill can dull despair befall?
She will not see me?

FABIAN.
Yes, my lord, but--

SEV.
Cease!

FABIAN.
'Twill but enhance the grief I would appease.

SEV.
For hopeless ill, good friend, I seek no cure.
Who welcomes death can life's short pain endure!

FABIAN.
O lost indeed, if round her fatal light you hover!--
The lover, losing all, speaks hardly like a lover!
While passion still is lord--the passion-swept is slave--
From this last bitterness would I Severus save!

SEV.
That word, my friend, unsay; tho' grief this bosom tear,
The hand that wounds I kiss--love vanquishes despair;
Fate only, not Pauline, the foe that I accuse,
No plighted faith she breaks who did this hand refuse.
Duty--her father--Fate--these willed, she but obeyed;
Not hers the woe, the strife that envious Ate made!
Untimely, Fortune's shower must drown me, not revive;
Too lavish and too late her fatal gifts arrive.
The golden apple falls, the gold is turned to dross:
When Fate at Fortune mocks, all gain is only loss!

FABIAN.
Yes, I will go to tell her thou hast drained
To the last drop the cup that Fate ordained.
She knows thee hero, but she feared that pain
Might prove thee also man--by passion slain.
She feared Despair, who gains the victory
O'er other men, might e'en thy master be!

SEV.
Peace! Peace! She comes!

FABIAN.
To thine own self be true!

SEV.
Nay! True to her! Shall I her life undo?
She loves the Armenian!

Enter Pauline

PAUL.
Yes, that debt I pay,
Hard--wrung, acquitted,--his my love alway!
Who has my hand, he holds--shall hold--my heart!
Truth is my guide,--let sophistry depart!
Had Fate been kind, then had Pauline been thine,
Heart, faith and duty, linked with bliss divin