that too; and can I do less than he,
Who never flashed a scimitar till now?
Myrrha, return, and I obey you, though 300
In disobedience to the monarch. [_Exit_ PANIA.

_Enter_ ALTADA _and_ SFERO _by an opposite door_.

_Alt._ Myrrha!
What, gone? yet she was here when the fight raged,
And Pania also. Can aught have befallen them?

_Sfe._ I saw both safe, when late the rebels fled;
They probably are but retired to make
Their way back to the harem.

_Alt._ If the King
Prove victor, as it seems even now he must,
And miss his own Ionian, we are doomed
To worse than captive rebels.

_Sfe._ Let us trace them:
She cannot be fled far; and, found, she makes 310
A richer prize to our soft sovereign
Than his recovered kingdom.

_Alt._ Baal himself
Ne'er fought more fiercely to win empire, than
His silken son to save it: he defies
All augury of foes or friends; and like
The close and sultry summer's day, which bodes
A twilight tempest, bursts forth in such thunder
As sweeps the air and deluges the earth.
The man's inscrutable.

_Sfe._ Not more than others.
All are the sons of circumstance: away-- 320
Let's seek the slave out, or prepare to be
Tortured for his infatuation, and[y]
Condemned without a crime. [_Exeunt_.

_Enter_ SALEMENES _and Soldiers, etc._

_Sal._ The triumph is
Flattering: they are beaten backward from the palace,
And we have opened regular access
To the troops stationed on the other side
Euphrates, who may still be true; nay, must be,
When they hear of our victory. But where
Is the chief victor? where's the King?

_Enter_ SARDANAPALUS, _cum suis, etc., and_ MYRRHA.

_Sar._ Here, brother.

_Sal._ Unhurt, I hope.

_Sar._ Not quite; but let it pass. 330
We've cleared the palace----

_Sal._ And I trust the city.
Our numbers gather; and I've ordered onward
A cloud of Parthians, hitherto reserved,
All fresh and fiery, to be poured upon them