SERIOUS AND SENTIMENTAL.

211

XXXV.-FROM ION.-Talfourd.

ADRASTUS, KING OF ARGOS-MEDON, HIGH PRIEST OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO-ION, A FOUNDLING, PROTECTED BY MEDONCTESIPHON, CASSANDER, NOBLE ARGIVE YOUTHS-CYRTHES, CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD-AGENOR, SAGE OF ARGOS.

Scene 1.-The royal Chamber. Adrastus on a couch, asleep.

(Enter Ion, with a knife.)

lon. Why do I creep thus stealthily along

With trembling steps? Am I not armed by Heaven

To execute its mandate on a king

Whom it hath doomed? And shall I falter now,

While every moment that he breathes may crush
Some life else happy?--Can I be deceived,
By some foul passion, crouching in my soul,
Which takes a radiant form to lure me on?
Assure me, gods!-Yes; I have heard your voices;
For I dare pray ye now to nerve my arm,
And see me strike! (He goes to the couch.)
He's smiling in his slumber,

As if some happy thoughts of innocent days
Played at his heart-strings: must I scare it thence
With death's sharp agony? He lies condemned

By the high judgment of supernal Powers,
And he shall know their sentence.

Wake, Adrastus !

Collect thy spirits, and be strong to die!

Adrastus. Who dares disturb my rest? Guards! Soldiers! Recreants!

Where tarry ye?

This bold intruder?
What would'st thou
Ion.

Why smite ye not to earth

Ha! no weapon here!
with me, ruffian? (Rising.)
I am none,

But a sad instrument in Jove's great hand,
To take thy life, long forfeited.-Prepare!
Thy hour is come!

Adras. Villains! does no one hear?

Ion. Vex not the closing minutes of thy being
With torturing hope or idle rage; thy guards,
Palsied with revelry, are scattered senseless,
While the most valiant of our Argive youths
Hold every passage by which human aid
Could reach thee. Present death is the award
Of Powers who watch above me, while I stand
To execute their sentence.

Adras.
Thou!-I know thee-
The youth I spared this moring, in whose ear
I poured the secrets of my bosom. Kill me,
If thou dar'st do it; but bethink thee first
How the grim memory of thy thankless deed
Will haunt thee to the grave!

Ion.

It is most true,

Thou sparedest my life, and therefore do the gods
Ordain me to this office, lest thy fall

Seem the chance forfeit of some single sin,
And now the great redress of Argos. Now-
Now, while I parley-Spirits that have left,
Within this hour, their plague tormented flesh
To rot untombed, glide by, and frown on me,
Their slow avenger-and the chamber swarms
With looks of Furies.-Yet a moment wait,
Ye dreadful prompters !-If there is a friend,
Whom dying thou would'st greet by word or token,
Speak thy last bidding.

Adras.

I have none on earth.

If thou hast courage, end me!

If I am,

Hope nothing from my weakness; mortal arms,
And eyes unseen that sleep not, gird us round,
And we shall fall together. Be it so !

Adras. No; strike at once; my hour is come in thee
I recognize the minister of Jove,

And, kneeling thus, submit me to his power. (Kneels.)
Ion. Avert thy face!

Adras.

No; let me meet thy gaze;

For breathing pity lights thy features up

Into more awful likeness of a form

Which once shone on me;-and which now my sense
Shapes palpable-in habit of the grave.
Inviting me to the sad realm where shades
Of innocents, whom passionate regard
Linked with the guilty, are content to pace
With them the margin of the inky flood,
Mournful and calm-'tis surely there ;-she waves
Her pallid hand in circle o'er thy head,

As if to bless thee-and I bless thee too,

Death's gracious angel!-Do not turn away.

Ion. Gods! to what office have ye doomed me !-Now! (Ion raises his arm to stab Adrastus, who is kneeling, and gazes steadfastly upon him. The voice of Medon is heard without, calling, "Ion! Ion!" Ion drops his arm.)

Adras. Be quick, or thou art lost!

(As Ion has again raised his arm to strike, Medon rushes in, behind him.)

Medon.

Lon, forbear.

Behold thy son, Adrastus! (Ion stands for a moment stupified with horror, drops the knife, and falls senseless.)

Adras.

What strange words

Are these, which call my sense from the death

They were composed to welcome? Son! 'tis false

I had but one-and the deep wave rolls o'er him!

Medon. That wave received, instead of the fair nursling, One of the slaves who bore him from thy sight

In wicked haste to slay ;-I'll give thee proofs.

Adras. Great Jove, I thank thee!-raise him gently-proofs ! Are there not here the lineaments of her

Who made me happy once-the voice, now still,
That bade the long-sealed fount of love gush out,
While with a prince's constancy he came
To lay his noble life down; and the sure,
The dreadful proof, that he whose guileless brow
Is instinct with her spirit, stood above me,
Armed for the traitor's deed ?--It is my child!

(Ion, reviving, sinks on one knee, before Adrastus.) Ion. Father! (Noise without.)

Medon. The clang of arms!

Ion. (Starting up.) They come ! they come !

They who are leagued with me against thy life.

Here let us fall!

Adras.

I will confront them yet.

Within I have a weapon which has drank

A traitor's blood ere now ;--there will I wait them :
No power less strong than death shall part us now.

(Exeunt Adrastus and Ion, as into an inner chamber.) Medon. Have mercy on him, gods, for the dear sake Of your most single-hearted worshiper.

(Enter Ctesiphon, Cassander, and others.) Ctesiphon. What treachery is this?--the tyrant fled, And Ion fled too!-Comrades, stay this dotard,

While I search in yonder chamber.

Medon.

Spare him, friends,

Spare him to clasp awhile his new-found son;
Spare him, as Ion's father?

Cte.

Father! yes

That is indeed a name to bid me spare :

Let me but find him, gods! (Rushes into the inner chamber.) Medon. (To Cassander and the others.)

Had ye but seen What I have seen, ye would have mercy on him.

(Cyrthes enters with soldiers.)

Ha! Soldiers! hasten to defend your master;

That way-(As Cyrthes is about to enter the inner chamber, Clesiphon rushes from it with a bloody dagger, and stops them.) Cte. It is accomplished; the foul blot

Is wiped away.

Shade of my murdered father,

Look on thy son, and smile!

Cyrthes.

Whose blood is that?

It cannot be !

It cannot be the king's !

Cte.

Think'st thou, foul minion of a tyrant's will,

He was to crush, and thou to crawl forever?
Look there, and tremble !

Cyr. Wretch! thy life shall pay

The forfeit of this deed. (Cyrthes and soldiers seize Ctesiphon.) (Enter Adrastus, mortally wounded, supported by Ion.) Here let me rest ;

Adras.

In this old chamber did my life begin,

And here I'll end it. Cyrthes! thou has timed
Thy visit well, to bring thy soldiers hither,

To gaze upon my parting.

Cyr.

Here is the traitor!

Adras.

To avenge thee ;

Set him free, at once:

Why do ye not obey me? Ctesiphon,

I

gave thee cause for this ;-believe me now,

That thy true steel has made thy vengeance sure;

And as we now stand equal, I will sue

For a small boon-let me not see thee more.

Cte. Farewell! (Exit.)

Adras. (To Cyrthes and Soldiers.) Why do ye tarry here?

Begone! still do ye hover round my couch?

If the commandment of a dying king
Is feeble as a man who has embraced
His child for the first time since infancy,
And presently must part with him forever,

I do adjure ye, leave us! (Exeunt all but Ion and Adrastus.)
Ion.
Oh, my father!

How is it with thee now?

Adras.

Well; very well;

Avenging Fate hath spent its utmost force

Against me; and I gaze upon my son,

With the sweet certainty that nought can part us

Till all is quiet here.

How like a dream,

Seems the succession of my regal pomps,

Since I embraced thy helplessness! To me

The interval hath been a weary one:

How hath it passed with thee?

lon.

But that my heart

Hath sometimes ached for the sweet sense of kindred,

I had enjoyed a round of happy years,

As cherished youth e'er knew.

Adras. I bless the gods