_Sal._ Must I stay to number 290 When even thine own's in peril? Let me go; Give me thy signet--trust me with the rest. _Sar._ I will trust no man with unlimited lives. When we take those from others, we nor know What we have taken, nor the thing we give. _Sal._ Wouldst thou not take their lives who seek for thine? _Sar._ That's a hard question--But I answer, Yes. Cannot the thing be done without? Who are they Whom thou suspectest?--Let them be arrested. _Sal._ I would thou wouldst not ask me; the next moment 300 Will send my answer through thy babbling troop Of paramours, and thence fly o'er the palace, Even to the city, and so baffle all.-- Trust me. _Sar._ Thou knowest I have done so ever; Take thou the signet. [_Gives the signet_. _Sal._ I have one more request. _Sar._ Name it. _Sal._ That thou this night forbear the banquet In the pavilion over the Euphrates. _Sar._ Forbear the banquet! Not for all the plotters That ever shook a kingdom! Let them come, And do their worst: I shall not blench for them; 310 Nor rise the sooner; nor forbear the goblet; Nor crown me with a single rose the less; Nor lose one joyous hour.--I fear them not. _Sal._ But thou wouldst arm thee, wouldst thou not, if needful? _Sar._ Perhaps. I have the goodliest armour, and A sword of such a temper, and a bow, And javelin, which might furnish Nimrod forth: A little heavy, but yet not unwieldy. And now I think on't, 'tis long since I've used them, Even in the chase. Hast ever seen them, brother? 320 _Sal._ Is this a time for such fantastic trifling?-- If need be, wilt thou wear them? _Sar._ Will I not? Oh! if it must be so, and these rash slaves Will not be ruled with less, I'll use the sword Till they shall wish it turned into a distaff. _Sal._ They say thy Sceptre's turned to that already. _Sar._ That's false! but let them say so: the old Greeks, Of whom our captives often sing, related The same of their chief hero, Hercules, Because he loved a Lydian queen: thou seest 330 The populace of all the nations seize Each calumny they can to sink their sovereigns. _Sal._ They did not speak thus of thy fathers.