_Fel._ Mistake me not; I never can approve A thing so wicked as the tyrant's love. I ask you would but some false promise give, Only to gain me so much time to live. [_Privately to St_ CATHARINE. _S. Cath._ That promise is a step to greater sin: The hold, once lost, we seldom take again. Each bound to heaven we fainter essays make, Still losing somewhat, till we quite go back. _Max._ Away! I grant no longer a reprieve. _Fel._ O do but beg my life, and I may live. [_To St_ CATH. Have you not so much pity in your breast? He stays to have you make it your request. _S. Cath._ To beg your life---- Is not to ask a grace of Maximin: It is a silent bargain for a sin. Could we live always, life were worth our cost; But now we keep with care what must be lost. Here we stand shivering on the bank, and cry, When we should plunge into eternity. One moment ends our pain; And yet the shock of death we dare not stand, By thought scarce measured, and too swift for sand: 'Tis but because the living death ne'er knew, They fear to prove it as a thing that's new. Let me the experiment before you try, I'll show you first how easy 'tis to die. _Max._ Draw then that curtain, and let death appear, And let both see how easy 'twill be there. _The_ SCENE _opens, and shews the Wheel_. _Fel._ Alas, what torments I already feel! _Max._ Go, bind her hand and foot beneath that wheel: Four of you turn the dreadful engine round; Four others hold her fastened to the ground; That, by degrees, her tender breasts may feel, First, the rough razings of the pointed steel; Her paps then let the bearded tenters stake, And on each hook a gory gobbet take; Till the upper flesh, by piece-meal torn away, Her beating heart shall to the sun display. _Fel._ My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall; [_Kneeling._ Hear, oh yet hear your wretched mother's call! Think, at, your birth, ah think what pains I bore, And can your eyes behold me suffer more? You were the child, which from your infancy I still loved best, and then you best loved me. About my neck your little arms you spread, Nor could you sleep without me in the bed; But sought my bosom when you went to rest, And all night long would lie across my breast. Nor without cause did you that fondness show: You may remember when our Nile did flow, While on the bank you innocently stood, And with a wand made circles in the flood, That rose, and just was hurrying you to death, When I, from far, all pale and out of breath, Ran and rushed in---- And from the waves my floating pledge did bear, So much my love was stronger than my fear. But you---- _Max._ Woman, for these long tales your life's too short; Go, bind her quickly, and begin the sport.