_Plac._ O day, the most accurst I ever knew! [_Aside._ _Max._ See to my son performed each funeral due: Then to the toils of war we will return, And make our enemies our losses mourn. [_Exeunt._ ACT II. SCENE I.--_The Royal Camp_. _Enter_ BERENICE _and_ PORPHYRIUS. _Ber._ Porphyrius, you too far did tempt your fate, In owning her, the emperor does hate. 'Tis true, your duty to me it became; But, praising that, I must your conduct blame. _Por._ Not to have owned my zeal at such a time, Were to sin higher than your tyrant's crime. _Ber._ 'Twas too much, my disgrace to accompany; A silent wish had been enough for me. _Por._ Wishes are aids faint servants may supply, Who ask heaven for you what themselves deny. Could I do less than my respect to pay, Where I before had given my heart away? _Ber._ You fail in that respect you seem to bear, When you speak words unfit for me to hear. _Por._ Yet you did once accept those vows I paid. _Ber._ Those vows were then to Berenice made; But cannot now be heard without a sin, When offered to the wife of Maximin. _Por._ Has, then, the change of fortune changed your will? Ah! why are you not Berenice still? To Maximin you once declared your hate; Your marriage was a sacrifice to th' state: Your brother made it to secure his throne, Which this man made a step to mount it on. _Ber._ Whatever Maximin has been, or is, I am to bear, since heaven has made me his; For wives, who must themselves of power divest, When they love blindly, for their peace love best. _Por._ If mutual love be vowed when faith you plight, Then he, who forfeits first, has lost his right. _Ber._ Husbands a forfeiture of love may make; But what avails the forfeit none can take? As, in a general wreck, The pirate sinks with his ill-gotten gains, And nothing to another's use remains, So, by his loss, no gain to you can fall: The sea, and vast destruction swallows all. _Por._ Yet he, who from the shore the wreck descries, May lawfully enrich him with the prize. _Ber._ Who sees the wreck, can yet no title plead, Till he be sure the owner first is dead. _Por._ If that be all the claim I want to love, This pirate of your heart I'll soon remove, And, at one stroke, the world and you set free. _Ber._ Leave to the care of heaven that world and me. _Por._ Heaven as its instrument my courage sends. _Ber._ Heaven ne'er sent those who fight for private ends. We both are bound by trust, and must be true; I to his bed, and to his empire you. For he who to the bad betrays his trust, Though he does good, becomes himself unjust. _Por._ When Brutus did from Cæsar Rome redeem, The act was good.