That I am fancy-free!

Enter Lamachus.

Lamachus.

Lama. My dearest daughter, why this solemn aspect?

I have glad news for thee. Thou knowest of old

The weary jealousies, the bloody feuds,

Which 'twixt our Cherson and her neighbour City

Have raged ere I was born—nay, ere my grandsire

First saw the light of heaven. Both our States

Are crippled by this brainless enmity.

And now the Empire, now the Scythian, threatens

Destruction to our Cities, whom, united,

We might defy with scorn. Seeing this weakness,

Thy father, wishful, ere his race be run,

29

29

To save our much-loved Cherson, sent of late

Politic envoys to our former foe,

And now—i' faith, I am not so old, 'twould seem

That I have lost my state-craft—comes a message.

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