Dan.

My hour approaches. Hate not my mem'ry, king: protect Araspes: Encourage Cyrus in the holy work

Of building ruin'd Solyma. Farewell.

Dar. With most religious strictness I'll fulfil Thy last request. Araspes shall be next

My throne and heart. Farewell! [They embrace. Hear, future kings!

Ye unborn rulers of the nations, hear!

Learn from my crime, from my misfortunes learn,
Never to trust to weak or wicked hands,
That delegated power which Oromasdes
Invests in monarchs for the public good.

DANIE L.

PART VII.

SCENE-The Court of the Palace.—The sun rising.

DARIUS, ARASPES.

Dar. Oh, good Araspes! what a night of horror! To me the dawning day brings no return Of cheerfulness or peace! No balmy sleep Has sealed these eyes, no nourishment has past These loathing lips, since Daniel's fate was signed. Hear what my fruitless penitence resolvesThe thirty days my rashness had decreed The edict's force should last, I will devote To mourning and repentance, fasting, prayer, And all due rites of grief. For thirty days No pleasant sound of dulcimer or harp, Sackbut, or flute, or psaltery, shall charm My ear, now dead to ev'ry note of joy! Ar. My grief can know no period! Dar. See that den! There Daniel met the furious lion's rage! There were the patient martyr's mangled limbs Torn piece-meal! Never hide thy tears, Araspes; 'Tis virtuous sorrow, unallay'd, like mine, By guilt and fell remorse! Let us approach: Who knows but that dread Pow'r to whom he pray'd, So often and so fervently, has heard him!

[He goes to the mouth of the den.

O Daniel, servant of the living God

HE whom thou hast serv'd so long, and lov'd so

well,

From the devouring lion's famish'd jaw
Can he deliver thee?

Dan. (from the bottom of the den.)

he has !

Dar. Methought I heard him speak!
Ar.

He can

Oh! wondrous force

Of strong imagination! were thy voice

Loud as the trumpet's blast, it could not wake him

From that eternal sleep!

Dan. (in the den.)

The God I serve has shut the lion's mouth,

To vindicate my innocence.

Dar.

He lives!

Ar.

Hail! king Darius!

He speaks!

"Tis no illusion: 'tis the sound

Of his known voice.

Dar.

Where are my servants? Haste Fly, swift as lightning, free him from the den; Release him, bring him hither! Break the seal Which keeps him from me! See, Araspes! look! See the charm'd lions !-Mark their mild demeanour; Araspes, mark!-they have no power to hurt him! See how they hang their heads and smooth their fierceness

At his mild aspect!

Ar.

Who that see this sight,

Who that in after-times shall hear this told,
Can doubt if Daniel's God be GOD indeed?
Dar. None, none, Araspes!

Ar.

Ah, he comes, he comes!

Enter DANIEL, followed by multitudes

Dan. Hail, great Darius !

Dar.

And live unhurt?

Dost thou live indeed!

Ar.

Oh, miracle of joy!

Dar. I scarce can trust my eyes! How dids thou 'scape;

Dan. That bright and glorious Being, who vouchsafed

Presence divine, when the three martyr'd brothers
Essay'd the caldron's flame, supported me!
E'en in the furious lions' dreadful den,
The prisoner of hope, even there I turn'd
To the strong hold, the bulwark of my strength,
Ready to hear, and mighty to redeem !

Dar. (to Ar.) Where is Pharnaces? Take the hoary traitor!

Take too Soranus, and the chief abettors
Of this dire edict: let not one escape.
The punishment their deep-laid hate devis'd
For holy Daniel, on their heads shall fall
With tenfold vengeance. To the lions' den
I doom his vile accusers! All their wives,
Their children, too, shall share one common fate !
Take care that none escape.-Go, good Araspes.
[ARASPES goes out.

Dan.

Not so, Darius !

O spare the guiltless, spare the guilty too!
Where sin is not, to punish were unjust;
And where sin is, O king, there fell remorse
Supplies the place of punishment!

Dar.

No more!

My word is pass'd! Not one request, save this, Shalt thou e'er make in vain. Approach, my friends: Araspes has already spread the tale,

And see what crouds advance.

People.

Long live Darius !

Long live great Daniel too, the people's friend!
Dar. Draw near, my subjects. See this holy

man!

Death had no power to harm him. Yon fell band Of famish'd lions, soften'd at his sight,

Forgot their nature, and grew tame before him.
The mighty God protects his servants thus!
The righteous thus he rescues from the snare!
While fraud's artificer himself shall fall

In the deep gulf his wily arts devise
To snare the innocent!

A Court.

To the same den

Araspes bears Pharnaces and his friends;

Fall'n is their insolence! With prayers and tears,
And all the meanness of high-crested pride
When adverse fortune frowns, they beg for life.
Araspes will not hear. "You heard not me,"
He cries, "when I for Daniel's life implor'd;
"His God protected him! see now if yours
Will listen to your cries !"

Dar.
Now hear,
People and nations, languages and realms,
O'er whom I rule! Peace be within your walls!
That I may banish from the minds of men
The rash decree gone out; hear me resolve
To counteract its force by one more just.
In ev'ry kingdom of my wide-stretch'd realm,
From fair Chaldea to th' extremest bound
Of northern Media, be my edict sent,

And this my statute known. My heralds haste,
And spread my royal mandate through the land,
That all my subjects bow the ready knee
To Daniel's God-for He alone is LORD.
Let all adore, and tremble at His name,
Who sits in glory unapproachable

Above the heav'ns-above the heav'n of heav'ns!
His pow'r is everlasting; and His throne,
Founded in equity and truth, shall last
Beyond the bounded reign of time and space,
Through wide eternity! With His right arm
He saves, and who opposes? He defends,
And who shall injure? In the perilous den
He rescued Daniel from the lion's mouth: