_Myr._ _Me!_ Think not of me--a single soldier's arm Must not be wanting now. I ask no guard, I need no guard: what, with a world at stake, Keep watch upon a woman? Hence, I say, 290 Or thou art shamed! Nay, then, _I_ will go forth, A feeble female, 'midst their desperate strife, And bid thee guard me _there_--where thou shouldst shield Thy sovereign. [_Exit_ MYRRHA. _Pan._ Yet stay, damsel!--She's gone. If aught of ill betide her, better I Had lost my life. Sardanapalus holds her Far dearer than his kingdom, yet he fights For that too; and can I do less than he, Who never flashed a scimitar till now? Myrrha, return, and I obey you, though 300 In disobedience to the monarch. [_Exit_ PANIA. _Enter_ ALTADA _and_ SFERO _by an opposite door_. _Alt._ Myrrha! What, gone? yet she was here when the fight raged, And Pania also. Can aught have befallen them? _Sfe._ I saw both safe, when late the rebels fled; They probably are but retired to make Their way back to the harem. _Alt._ If the King Prove victor, as it seems even now he must, And miss his own Ionian, we are doomed To worse than captive rebels. _Sfe._ Let us trace them: She cannot be fled far; and, found, she makes 310 A richer prize to our soft sovereign Than his recovered kingdom. _Alt._ Baal himself Ne'er fought more fiercely to win empire, than His silken son to save it: he defies All augury of foes or friends; and like The close and sultry summer's day, which bodes A twilight tempest, bursts forth in such thunder As sweeps the air and deluges the earth. The man's inscrutable. _Sfe._ Not more than others. All are the sons of circumstance: away-- 320 Let's seek the slave out, or prepare to be Tortured for his infatuation, and[y] Condemned without a crime. [_Exeunt_. _Enter_ SALEMENES _and Soldiers, etc._ _Sal._ The triumph is Flattering: they are beaten backward from the palace, And we have opened regular access To the troops stationed on the other side Euphrates, who may still be true; nay, must be, When they hear of our victory. But where Is the chief victor? where's the King? _Enter_ SARDANAPALUS, _cum suis, etc., and_ MYRRHA. _Sar._ Here, brother. _Sal._ Unhurt, I hope. _Sar._ Not quite; but let it pass. 330 We've cleared the palace----