You’ve touched my quick more nearly than you think-- Well, Gyges? GYGES. Sire, I have been seeking you. KAN. Not more than I’ve been seeking you. Say on, What brings you here? You’re dumb and turn away. Whate’er it be I have the strength for much. GYGES. Oh, had you but received my sacrifice! KAN. I ne’er will rue that thus I have not done, But had it been received, what profit there? That night suspicion inextinguishable Took kindle in her bosom from your sigh. But cease this feud of conscience. Where’s the man That is a man and had not sighed like you? GYGES. No blessed day was that on which the King Of Lydia first met with Grecian Gyges. KAN. I curse it not. GYGES. Your own hand had the power To shield you from that couched and glowering tiger, And I by launching my unwanted dart Became not your deliverer from destruction But robber of your master-shot. KAN. ’Tis true. I had him fully marked and was prepared, But when I saw your eyes in eager glitter, The glow upon your cheeks, the heave of breast, I banished from my lips a quiet smile And gave you thanks. GYGES. Ever this noble mind. E’en when I dreamt not of it! Can I then? KAN. And the first glance told me another thing, That should there come on me a greater peril You’d do the deed again and make it braver. And if it has not come you bear no guilt. GYGES. Sire, speak no more. ’Tis even as you say, Against a single hair from off your head I would have staked my blood--yet now--yet now-- So wills the curse, I must demand your life. KAN. My life? GYGES. Even so, if she is not to die. The sun already dips to his descent, And if your eye still sees the evening star Then hers shall never see it, nevermore. KAN. Then if you kill not me she kills herself? GYGES. She does. How else could I stand thus before you? KAN. No other sacrifice requites her vengeance? GYGES. I offered her the dearest, but in vain. KAN. Ah, then she will refuse me even farewell! GYGES. I fear she’ll flee your face into the grave. KAN. No more, then. Take my life.--You start aback? GYGES. So willing with the gift? KAN. Who does a sin Does penance too. Who smiles not in atonement Makes no atonement. Am I known so ill And held so light by you that such a word Astounds, nay more, affrights you? Where’s my heart That I should force her with her rosy fingers, Too tender even for plucking of a flower, To stretch them for a dagger and to prove If she be skilled to find her heart? GYGES. This too? Flinging the very garment’s shelter back And offering breast yourself? KAN.