She comes! Ah, could she be decoyed from him And yield consent to follow me to Rome, Then--but she hates and loves him at a breath! Dare I arouse a last storm? To the deed! [_Hastening towards_ MARIAMNE. You seek for comfort where it may be found! Come to my heart! MAR. Comfort? ALEX. You need it not? Then I have known you ill! Yet I had grounds To judge you for the woman you are not. You have been slandered to me! MAR. I? to you? ALEX. I have been told of arms enlinked and kisses Bestowed upon a brother-murdering consort Hot on the deed by--Pardon! I had no right To give it credence. MAR. None? ALEX. No! ever No! And No, on more than one ground. Could you even Begrudge the bloody shadow of your brother, All heartless, the atonement of revenge Sisters should sacrifice, revenge that not Through Judith’s sword and not through Rahab’s[9] nail, No, merely through a notion of the mouth And merely through still folding of the arms Were better wreaked and to the Dead devoted, Then he, the very murderer, had not dared To come anear you, for you’re like the Dead One: And you could hurt his sight as ’twere the corse Of Aristobulus tricked in woman’s paint; He would have turned him from you shuddering. MAR. He did not do the one, nor I the other. ALEX. Then be----But no, perchance a doubt still lingers Touching his guilt. Will you then have the proof? MAR. I need it not. ALEX. You need---- MAR. ’Twere bootless to me. ALEX. Then--but I hold the curse even now in check, I see another one has lighted on you! You still walk in the fetters of a love That never shed a lustre---- MAR. Yet I thought I had not picked a consort for myself, I had but yoked my neck beneath the doom That you and Hyrcan with a pious care Had hung above a daughter and a grandchild. ALEX. Not I! My coward father sealed the bond. MAR. And by that deed he pleased you ill? ALEX. Not that! Or else I had outstripped him with our flight. I had a refuge open down in Egypt. I only say the thing was clinched by him, By him, the first High Priest without a spine! And I but battled down the first repugnance With which I took his meaning. Yet I did it Because I found the coward’s tradesman-traffic Good in the main, and gave for Edom’s sword The Pearl of Zion, when he pressed me hard. Yea, had the serpent had a poisoned fang When it was dug that time in Cleopatra, Or had a lucky chance brought Antony Toward these regions when upon his march, I had said no! but, as it was, said yes! MAR.