_Ber._ That happiness may Berenice find, Leaving these empty joys of earth behind; And this frail being, where so short a while The unfortunate lament, and prosperous smile. Yet a few days, and those which now appear In youth and beauty like the blooming year, In life's swift scene shall change; and cares shall come, And heavy age, and death's relentless doom. _S. Cath._ Yet man, by pleasures, seeks that fate which he would shun; And, sucked in by the stream, does to the whirlpool run. _Max._ How, madam, are you to new ways inclined? I fear the Christian sect perverts your mind. [_To_ BER. _Ber._ Yes, tyrant, know, that I their faith embrace, And own it in the midst of my disgrace; That faith, which, abject as it seems to thee, Is nobler than thy purple pageantry; A faith, which still with nature is at strife, And looks beyond it to a future life; A faith, which vicious souls abhor and fear, Because it shows eternity too near: And therefore every one, With seeming scorn of it the rest deceives; All joining not to own what each believes. _S. Cath._ O happy queen! whom power leads not astray, Nor youth's more powerful blandishments betray. _Ber._ Your arguments my reason first inclined, And then your bright example fixed my mind. _Max._ With what a holy empress am I blest! What scorn of earth dwells in her heavenly breast! My crown's too mean; but He, whom you adore, Has one more bright, of martyrdom, in store. She dies, and I am from the envy freed: [_Aside._ She has, I thank her, her own death decreed. No soldier now will in her rescue stir; Her death is but in complaisance to her. I'll haste to gratify her holy will;-- Heaven grant her zeal may but continue still! Tribune, a guard to seize the empress strait; [_To_ VAL. Secure her person prisoner to the state. [_Exit_ MAX. _Val._ [_going to her_.] Madam, believe 'tis with regret I come, To execute my angry prince's doom. _Enter_ PORPHYRIUS. _Por._ What is it I behold! Tribune, from whence Proceeds this more than barbarous insolence? _Val._ Sir, I perform the emperor's commands. _Por._ Villain, hold off thy sacrilegious hands, Or, by the gods--retire without reply; And, if he asks who bid thee, say 'twas I. [VAL. _retires to a distance._ _Ber._ Too generously your safety you expose, To save one moment her, whom you must lose. _Por._ 'Twixt you and death ten thousand lives there stand; Have courage, madam; the prætorian band Will all oppose your tyrant's cruelty.