not a fast.

CLARIN. Yes, it is; for I remember
That the day I went away
Was my day.

LIVIA. Oh! that's an error.

MOSCON. Yes, I see how that arises,
This year is a year bissextile,
And our days are now the same.

CLARIN. Well, I'm satisfied, 'tis better
That a man should not too deeply
Pry into such things.--Good heavens!--

[The sound of a great tempest is heard.

* * * * *

SCENE XXVII.

The Governor, a crowd of People; then FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS, all
astonished; afterwards The Demon.

LIVIA. Sure the house is tumbling down.

MOSCON. How terrific! what a tempest!

GOVERNOR. Doubtless in disastrous ruin
Topple down the walls of heaven

[The tempest is renewed, and enter FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS.

FABIUS. Scarcely on the public scaffold
Had the headsman's hand dissevered
Cyprian and Justina's necks,
When the earth, even to its centre,
Seemed to tremble.

LELIUS. And a cloud,
From whose burning womb extended
The wild lightnings, the loud thunders,
Awful embryos were projected,
Fell upon us.

FLORUS. From which issued
A most horrid, most repelling
Shape, who on the scaly shells
Of a mailed and mighty serpent,
O'er the scaffold made a sign
Motioning silence and attention.

[The Scene opens, and a scaffold with the heads and bodies of JUSTINA
and CYPRIAN is seen. Over it in the air, upon a winged serpent, is
The Demon.

DEMON. Hear, O mortals, hear what I,
By the orders of high Heaven,
For Justina's exculpation,
Must declare to all here present.
I it was, who to dishonour
Her pure fame, in form dissembled
For the purpose, scaled her house,
And her very chamber entered.
And in order that her fame
Should not by that fraud be lessened,
I come here her injured honour
To exhibit pure and perfect.
Cyprian, who with her lieth
On a happy bier at rest there,
Was my slave. But he effacing,
With the blood his neck outsheddeth,
The red signature, the linen
Is now spotless and unblemished.
And the two, in spite of me,
Having to the spheres ascended
Of the sacred throne of God,
Live there in a world far better.--
This, then, is the