_Læ._ Full of dismay'd unsteadiness he stood, His right hand lock'd in hers, which hand he gave As pledge for Rome she[387] ever should live free. But when I enter'd and well urged this vow And thy command, his great heart sunk with shame, His eyes lost spirit, and his heat of life Sank from his face, as one that stood benumb'd, All mazed, t'effect impossibilities; 10 For either unto her or Scipio He must break vow. Long time he toss'd his thoughts; And as you see a snow-ball being roll'd, At first a handful, yet, long bowl'd about, Insensibly acquires a mighty globe,-- So his cold grief through agitation grows, And more he thinks, the more of grief he knows. At last he seem'd to yield her. _Sy._ Mark, Scipio! Trust him that breaks a vow? _Sci._ How then trust thee? 19 _Sy._ O, misdoubt him not, when he's thy slave like me. _Enter_ MASSINISSA, _all in black_. _Mass._ Scipio! _Sci._ Massinissa! _Mass._ General! _Sci._ King! _Mass._ Lives there no mercy for one soul of Carthage, But must see baseness? _Sci._ Wouldst thou joy thy peace, Deliver Sophonisba straight and cease; Do not grasp that which is too hot to hold. We grace thy grief, and hold it with soft sense; Enjoy good courage, but 'void insolence. I tell thee Rome and Scipio deign to bear So low a breast as for her say--we fear. _Mass._ Do not, do not; let not the fright of nations 30 Know so vile terms. She rests at thy dispose. _Sy._ To my soul['s] joy. Shall Sophonisba then With me go bound, and wait on Scipio's wheel? When th' whole world's giddy, one man cannot reel. _Mass._ Starve thy lean hopes; and, Romans, now behold A sight would sad the gods, make Phoebus cold. _Organ and recorders play to a single voice. Enter in the meantime the mournful solemnity of_ MASSINISSA'S _presenting_ SOPHONISBA'S _body_. Look, Scipio, see what hard shift we make To keep our vows. Here, take, I yield her thee; And Sophonisba, I keep vow, thou'rt still free. _Sy._ Burst, my vex'd heart: the torture that most racks 40 An enemy is his foe's royal acts. _Sci._ The glory of thy virtue live for ever; Brave hearts may be obscured, but extinct never. [SCIPIO _adorns_ MASSINISSA. Take from the general of Rome this crown, This robe of triumph, and this conquest's wreath, This sceptre and this hand; for ever breathe Rome's very minion. Live worth thy fame, As far from faintings as from now base name. _Mass._ Thou whom, like sparkling steel, the strokes of chance Made hard and firm, and, like[388] wild-fire turn'd, 50 The more cold fate, the more thy virtue burn'd, And in whole seas of miseries didst flame; On thee, loved creature of a deathless fame,