s Gods--

_Sar._ In dust
And death, where they are neither Gods nor men.
Talk not of such to me! the worms are Gods;[11]
At least they banqueted upon your Gods, 270
And died for lack of farther nutriment.
Those Gods were merely men; look to their issue--
I feel a thousand mortal things about me,
But nothing godlike,--unless it may be
The thing which you condemn, a disposition
To love and to be merciful, to pardon
The follies of my species, and (that's human)
To be indulgent to my own.

_Sal._ Alas!
The doom of Nineveh is sealed.--Woe--woe
To the unrivalled city!

_Sar._ What dost dread? 280

_Sal._ Thou art guarded by thy foes: in a few hours
The tempest may break out which overwhelms thee,
And thine and mine; and in another day
What _is_ shall be the past of Belus' race.

_Sar._ What must we dread?

_Sal._ Ambitious treachery,
Which has environed thee with snares; but yet
There is resource: empower me with thy signet
To quell the machinations, and I lay
The heads of thy chief foes before thy feet.

_Sar._ The heads--how many?

_Sal._ Must I stay to number 290
When even thine own's in peril? Let me go;
Give me thy signet--trust me with the rest.

_Sar._ I will trust no man with unlimited lives.
When we take those from others, we nor know
What we have taken, nor the thing we give.

_Sal._ Wouldst thou not take their lives who seek for thine?

_Sar._ That's a hard question--But I answer, Yes.
Cannot the thing be done without? Who are they
Whom thou suspectest?--Let them be arrested.

_Sal._ I would thou wouldst not ask me; the next moment 300
Will send my answer through thy babbling troop
Of paramours, and thence fly o'er the palace,
Even to the city, and so baffle all.--
Trust me.

_Sar._ Thou knowest I have done so ever;
Take thou the signet. [_Gives the signet_.

_Sal._ I have one more request.

_Sar._ Name it.

_Sal._ That thou this night forbear the banquet
In the pavilion over the Euphrates.

_Sar._ Forbear the banquet! Not for all the plotters
Th