t the universal voice.
Save us our Cherson. For the rest I care not,
Only I grieve to break our solemn promise
To Lamachus's child. Poor heart! poor heart!

ACT V.

SCENE I.--_Outside_ LAMACHUS'S _palace._

MEGACLES, LYSIMACHUS, Courtiers, _and_ Citizens _of Cherson._

_Meg._ Oh, this has been a happy day. All has gone admirably. Not a
hitch in all the arrangements. Precedence kept, rank observed,
dresses all they should be. I do not, I really do not think, though I
say it who should not, that the Imperial Chamberlain at
Constantinople could have conducted the matter better.

_1st Court._ Nay, that he could not, good Megacles. Let us hope that
what remains to do will go as smoothly.

_Meg._ What remains? Doubtless you mean the banquet. That is all
arranged long ago under three heads. First, the order of entering the
hall; second, the order of the seats; third, the order of going
forth.

_Lys._ Doubtless the last will arrange itself. Remember, the only
order of going to be observed is this, that thou get thyself gone,
and all the guests from Cherson gone, fully half an hour before
midnight.

_Meg._ But, my lord, that is impossible; you ask too much. How long
do you suppose it will take, at a moderate computation, to get one
hundred men of ill-defined rank out of a room with a decent regard
for Precedence. Why, I have seen it take an hour at the Palace, where
everybody knew his place, and here I cannot undertake to do it under
two.

_Lys._ My friend, you will get it done; you will waive ceremony. None
but the Prince and ourselves must remain within half an hour of
midnight, and the hall must be cleared.

_Meg._ Ah, well, my Lord Lysimachus, the responsibility rests with
you; I will have none of it. It is as much as my reputation is worth.
But if I do this, cannot you let me have a guard of honour of armed
men to stand at intervals along the hall. I have been longing for
them all day.

_Lys._ (_angrily_). Peace, fool! I have told you before we have no
soldiers here.

[People _of Cherson overhearing him._

_1st Cit._ Didst hear that old man? He believes there are soldiers
here. Whence do they come? and why did the other check him?

_Meg._ Well, my Lord Lysimachus, if not soldiers, men-at-arms, and
these there certainly are, and highly decorative too.

_2nd Cit._ I hate these Bosphorians. What if the rumour should be
true? Pass the word to the citizens that they sleep not to-night, but