_Bend._ Good omen, sir; I wish you in that heaven Your dream portends you,-- Which presages death. [_Aside._ _Emp._ Thou too wert there; And thou, methought, didst push me from below, With thy full force, to Paradise. _Bend._ Yet better. _Emp._ Ha! what's that grizly fellow, that attends thee? _Bend._ Why ask you, sir? _Emp._ For he was in my dream, And helped to heave me up. _Bend._ With prayers and wishes; For I dare swear him honest. _Emp._ That may be; But yet he looks damnation. _Bend._ You forget The face would please you better. Do you love, And can you thus forbear? _Emp._ I'll head my people, Then think of dalliance when the danger's o'er. My warlike spirits work now another way, And my soul's tuned to trumpets. _Bend._ You debase yourself, To think of mixing with the ignoble herd; Let such perform the servile work of war, Such who have no Almeyda to enjoy. What, shall the people know their god-like prince Skulked in a nightly skirmish? Stole a conquest, Headed a rabble, and profaned his person, Shouldered with filth, borne in a tide of ordure, And stifled with their rank offensive sweat? _Emp._ I am off again; I will not prostitute The regal dignity so far, to head them. _Bend._ There spoke a king. Dismiss your guards, to be employed elsewhere In ruder combats; you will want no seconds In those alarms you seek. _Emp._ Go, join the crowd;-- [_To the Guards._ Benducar, thou shalt lead them in my place. [_Exeunt Guards._ The God of Love once more has shot his fires Into my soul, and my whole heart receives him. Almeyda now returns with all her charms; I feel her as she glides along my veins, And dances in my blood. So when our prophet Had long been hammering, in his lonely cell, Some dull, insipid, tedious Paradise, A brisk Arabian girl came tripping by; Passing she cast at him a side-long glance, And looked behind, in hopes to be pursued: He took the hint, embraced the flying fair, And, having found his heaven, he fixed it there. [_Exit Emperor._ _Bend._ That Paradise thou never shalt possess. His death is easy now, his guards are gone, And I can sin but once to seize the throne; All after-acts are sanctified by power. _Orc._ Command my sword and life. _Bend._ I thank thee, Orchan, And shall reward thy faith. This master-key Frees every lock, and leads us to his person; And, should we miss our blow,--as heaven forbid!-- Secures retreat. Leave open all behind us; And first set wide the Mufti's garden gate, Which is his private passage to the palace; For there our mutineers appoint to meet, And thence we may have aid.--Now sleep, ye stars, That silently o'erwatch the fate of kings! Be all propitious influences barred, And none but murderous planets mount the guard. [_Exit with_ ORCHAN. SCENE II.--_A Night-Scene of the Mufti's Garden._ _Enter the Mufti alone, in a Slave's Habit, like that of_ ANTONIO.