nce, hadst thou as many tongues,
As days have wasted since creation's birth,
They were too few to tell the mighty theme.

EVANTHE.

I'm lost! I'm lost! [_Aside._

ARSACES.

Then I'll be dumb for ever.

KING.

O rash and fatal oath! is there no way,
No winding path to shun this precipice,
But must I fall and dash my hopes to atoms?
In vain I strive, thought but perplexes me,
Yet shews no hold to bear me up--now, hold
My heart a while--she's thine--'tis done.

ARSACES.

In deep
Prostration, I thank my Royal Father.

KING.

A sudden pain shoots thro' my trembling breast--
Lend me thy arm Vardanes--cruel pow'rs!

SCENE VII.

_ARSACES and EVANTHE._

EVANTHE [_after a pause_].

E'er since the dawn of my unhappy life
Joy never shone serenely on my soul;
Still something interven'd to cloud my day.
Tell me, ye pow'rs, unfold the hidden crime
For which I'm doom'd to this eternal woe,
Thus still to number o'er my hours with tears?
The Gods are just I know, nor are decrees
In hurry shuffl'd out, but where the bolt
Takes its direction justice points the mark.
Yet still in vain I search within my breast,
I find no sins are there to shudder at--
Nought but the common frailties of our natures.
Arsaces,--Oh!--

ARSACES.

Ha! why that look of anguish?
Why didst thou name me with that sound of sorrow?
Ah! say, why stream those gushing tears so fast
From their bright fountain? sparkling joy should now
Be lighten'd in thine eye, and pleasure glow
Upon thy rosy cheek;--ye sorrows hence--
'Tis love shall triumph now.

EVANTHE.

Oh! [_Sighs._

ARSACES.

What means that sigh?
Tell me why heaves thy breast with such emotion?
Some dreadful thought is lab'ring for a vent,
Haste, give it loose, ere strengthen'd by confinement
It wrecks thy frame, and tears its snowy prison.
Is sorrow then so pleasing that you hoard it
With as much love, as misers do their gold?
Give me my share of sorrows.

EVANTHE.

Ah! too soon
You'll know what I would hide.

ARSACES.

Be it from thee--
The dreadful tale, when told by thee, shall please;
Haste, to produce it with its native terrors,
My steady soul shall still remain unshaken;
For who when bless'd