_Ner._ Ha! _Mess._ But by the grace of the gods She is escaped. _Ner._ Escaped! _Mess._ She swam to shore unharmed. _Ner._ Thou wretch, And comest thou here in thy master’s place 2999 To bate mine anger? Forth and send him hither. Fly, or I kill thee. _Mess._ Pardon, great Cæsar, pardon. The Admiral follows and will straight be here. [_Runs out._ _Ner._ (_aside_). Escaped! after such boast, escaped! I am lost.— To have done this thing had tried me; to have attempted it And failed is ruin. _Sen._ (_aside from Nero_). What is this? _Bur._ (_to Sen._) ’Tis clear Cæsar knows what: and her escape not being His pleasure tells us that ’twas not his purpose. _Sen._ (_aloud_). Alas, alas! _Ner._ What friend there cries Alas? Who now stands by me? who will aid me now? _Tig._ If Cæsar make his will but known... _Ner._ Thou dullard! I need the brains of them that know my will. 3011 Now is no time for parley. Seneca, Speak what thou thinkest. _Sen._ Cæsar, I am so much grieved that... _Ner._ What’s thy pain To mine? Speak, man! _Sen._ Alas, what shall I say? _Ner._ How hast thou guessed this thing without a word, And yet hast not foreseen it? _Sen._ Oh, is’t then true? The letter false; the Augusta hither brought But to be drowned! _Ner._ See if ye know it not. _Sen._ Let her escape belie thy guilty purpose. 3020 _Ner._ Why, nay, the failure damns a thousand-fold More than her death—I am henceforth the man Who would have killed his mother, and could not. _Sen._ Alas, alas! _Ner._ Hast thou no word but that? Thou that hast ever warned me, ay, and gone So far upon this path that thou hast sought To dull the natural feeling which so long Held off my hand, hast argued ’gainst repugnance, Crying, ’tis she that is the guilty one, 3029 The dangerous one, there is no peace with her: And now the day the thing thou hast foreseen, Ay, and hast led me to, is done, thou’rt silent. Hast thou no word?—Thou that wast ever ready, Hast thou no word?—What strikes thee on a sudden Dumb? Be my counsellor now that I need thee. Speak now! Why, thou dost weep! surely thou weepest! Burrus, what sayest thou?