jailors vanish,
Cry,--fire the palace! where is the cruel king?
Yet, by the infernal Gods, those awful powers
That have accused you, which these ears have heard,
And these eyes seen, I must believe you guiltless;
For, since I knew the royal OEdipus,
I have observed in all his acts such truth,
And god-like clearness, that, to the last gush
Of blood and spirits, I'll defend his life,
And here have sworn to perish by his side.

_OEdip._ Be witness, Gods, how near this touches me. [_Embracing him._
O what, what recompence can glory make?

_Adr._ Defend your innocence, speak like yourself,
And awe the rebels with your dauntless virtue.
But hark! the storm comes nearer.

_OEdip._ Let it come.
The force of majesty is never known
But in a general wreck: Then, then is seen
The difference 'twixt a threshold and a throne.

_Enter_ CREON, PYRACMON, ALCANDER, TIRESIAS, _Thebans._

_Alc._ Where, where's this cruel king?--Thebans, behold,
There stands your plague, the ruin, desolation
Of this unhappy--speak; shall I kill him?
Or shall he be cast out to banishment?

_All Theb._ To banishment, away with him!

_OEdip._ Hence, you barbarians, to your slavish distance!
Fix to the earth your sordid looks; for he,
Who stirs, dares more than madmen, fiends, or furies.
Who dares to face me, by the Gods, as well
May brave the majesty of thundering Jove.
Did I for this relieve you, when besieged
By this fierce prince, when cooped within your walls,
And to the very brink of fate reduced;
When lean-jawed famine made more havock of you,
Than does the plague? But I rejoice I know you,
Know the base stuff that tempered your vile souls:
The Gods be praised, I needed not your empire,
Born to a greater, nobler, of my own;
Nor shall the sceptre of the earth now win me
To rule such brutes, so barbarous a people.

_Adr._ Methinks, my lord, I see a sad repentance,
A general consternation spread among them.

_OEdip._ My reign is at an end; yet, ere I finish,
I'll do a justice that becomes a monarch;
A monarch, who, in the midst of swords and javelins,
Dares act as on his throne, encompast round
With nations for his guard. Alcander, you
Are nobly born, therefore shall lose your head: [_Seizes him._
Here, Haemon, take him: but for this, and this,
Let cords dispatch them. Hence, away with them!

_Tir._ O sacred prince, pardon distracted Thebes,
Pardon her, if she acts by heaven's award;
If that the infernal spirits have declar