_Val._ Since prayers nor tears can bend his cruel mind, [_Looking after_ POR. Farewell, the best and bravest of mankind! How I have loved, heaven knows; but there's a fate, Which hinders me from being fortunate. My father's crimes hang heavy on my head, And like a gloomy cloud about me spread. I would in vain be pious; that's a grace, Which heaven permits not to a tyrant's race. _Max._ Hence to her tent the foolish girl convey. _Val._ Let me be just before I go away.-- Placidius, I have vowed to be your wife; Take then my hand, 'tis yours while I have life.-- One moment here I must another's be; But this, Porphyrius, gives me back to thee. [_Stabs herself twice, and then_ PLACIDIUS _wrests the Dagger from her_. _Plac._ Help, help the princess, help! _Max._ What rage has urged this act, which thou hast done? _Val._ Thou, tyrant, and thy crimes, have pulled it on. Thou, who canst death with such a pleasure see, Now take thy fill, and glut thy sight in me. But--I'll the occasion of my death forget; Save him I love, and be my father yet: I can no more--Porphyrius, my dear-- _Cyd._ Alas, she raves, and thinks Porphyrius here. _Val._ Have I not yet deserved thee, now I die? Is Berenice still more fair than I? Porphyrius, do not swim before my sight; Stand still, and let me, let me aim aright! Stand still, but while thy poor Valeria dies, And sighs her soul into her lover's eyes. [_Dies._ _Plac._ She's gone from earth, and with her went away All of the tyrant that deserved to stay: I've lost in her all joys that life can give; And only to revenge her death would live. [_Aside._ _Cyd._ The gods have claimed her, and we must resign. _Max._ What had the Gods to do with me or mine? Did I molest your heaven? Why should you then make Maximin your foe Who paid you tribute, which he need not do? Your altars I with smoke of gums did crown, For which you leaned your hungry nostrils down, All daily gaping for my incense there, More than your sun could draw you in a year. And you for this these plagues on me have sent! But by the Gods, (by Maximin, I meant,) Henceforth I, and my world, Hostility with you, and yours, declare. Look to it, Gods; for you the aggressors are. Keep you your rain and sunshine in your skies, And I'll keep back my flame and sacrifice. Your trade of heaven shall soon be at a stand, And all your goods lie dead upon your hand. _Plac._ Thus, tyrant, since the Gods the aggressors are, [_Stabbing him._ Thus by this stroke they have begun the war. [MAXIMIN _struggles with him, and gets the dagger from him._