_Max._ From my full eyes fond tears begin to start:---- Dispatch,--they practise treason on my heart. _Por._ Adieu: This farewell sigh I as my last bequeath; Catch it,--'tis love expiring in a breath. _Ber._ This sigh of mine shall meet it half the way, As pledges given that each for other stay. _Enter_ VALERIA _and_ CYDON. _Val._ What dismal scene of death is here prepar'd! _Max._ Now strike. _Val._ They shall not strike till I am heard. _Max._ From whence does this new impudence proceed, That you dare alter that which I decreed? _Val._ Ah, sir, to what strange courses do you fly, To make yourself abhorred for cruelty! The empire groans under your bloody reign, And its vast body bleeds in every vein. Gasping and pale, and fearing more, it lies; And now you stab it in the very eyes: Your Cæsar and the partner of your bed! Ah, who can wish to live when they are dead? If ever gentle pity touch'd your breast---- I cannot speak--my tears shall speak the rest. [_Weeping and sobbing._ _Por._ She adds new grief to what I felt before, And fate has now no room to put in more. _Max._ Away, thou shame and slander of my blood! [_To_ VALERIA. Who taught thee to be pitiful or good? _Val._ What hope have I, The name of virtue should prevail with him, Who thinks even it, for which I plead, a crime?-- Yet nature, sure, some argument may be; If them you cannot pity, pity me. _Max._ I will, and all the world shall judge it so: I will the excess of pity to you shew. You ask to save A dangerous rebel, and disloyal wife; And I in mercy--will not take your life. _Val._ You more than kill me by this cruelty, And in their persons bid your daughter die. I honour Berenice's virtue much; But for Porphyrius my love is such, I cannot, will not live, when he is gone. _Max._ I'll do that cure for you, which on myself is done. You must, like me, your lover's life remove; Cut off your hope, and you destroy your love. If it were hard, I would not bid you try The medicine; but 'tis but to let him die. Yet since you are so soft, (which you call good,) And are not yet confirmed enough in blood, To see his death; Your frailty shall be favoured with this grace, That they shall suffer in another place. If, after they are dead, their memory By any chance into your mind be brought, Laugh, and divert it with some other thought. Away with them. [_Exeunt_ BERENICE, PORPHYRIUS, _and_ ALBINUS, _carried off by Guards_.