My Lord!--

_Sar._ My Lord--my King--Sire--Sovereign; thus it is--
For ever thus, addressed with awe. I ne'er
Can see a smile, unless in some broad banquet's
Intoxicating glare, when the buffoons 440
Have gorged themselves up to equality,
Or I have quaffed me down to their abasement.
Myrrha, I can hear all these things, these names,
Lord--King--Sire--Monarch--nay, time was I prized them;
That is, I suffered them--from slaves and nobles;
But when they falter from the lips I love,
The lips which have been pressed to mine, a chill
Comes o'er my heart, a cold sense of the falsehood
Of this my station, which represses feeling
In those for whom I have felt most, and makes me 450
Wish that I could lay down the dull tiara,
And share a cottage on the Caucasus
With thee--and wear no crowns but those of flowers.

_Myr._ Would that we could!

_Sar._ And dost _thou_ feel this?--Why?

_Myr._ Then thou wouldst know what thou canst never know.

_Sar._ And that is----

_Myr._ The true value of a heart;
At least, a woman's.

_Sar._ I have proved a thousand--A
thousand, and a thousand.

_Myr._ Hearts?

_Sar._ I think so.

_Myr._ Not one! the time may come thou may'st.

_Sar._ It will.
Hear, Myrrha; Salemenes has declared-- 460
Or why or how he hath divined it, Belus,
Who founded our great realm, knows more than I--
But Salemenes hath declared my throne
In peril.

_Myr._ He did well.

_Sar._ And say'st _thou_ so?
Thou whom he spurned so harshly, and now dared[g]
Drive from our presence with his savage jeers,
And made thee weep and blush?

_Myr._ I should do both
More frequently, and he did well to call me
Back to my duty. But thou spakest of peril
Peril to thee----

_Sar._ Aye, from dark plots and snares 470
From Medes--and discontented troops and nations.
I know not what--a labyrinth of things--
A maze of muttered threats and mysteries:
Thou know'st the man--it is his usual custom.
But he is honest. Come, we'll think no more on't--
But