Vardanes.

Thanks, gentle friend;

Heav'ns! what a night is this!

Lysias.

Lysias.

'Tis fill'd with terror;

Some dread event beneath this horror lurks,

Ordain'd by fate's irrevocable doom;

Perhaps Arsaces' fall—and angry heav'n

Speaks it, in thunder, to the trembling world.

Vardanes.

Vardanes.

Terror indeed! it seems as sick'ning Nature

Had giv'n her order up to gen'ral ruin;

The Heav'ns appear as one continu'd flame,

Earth with her terror shakes, dim night retires,

And the red lightning gives a dreadful day,

While in the thunder's voice each sound is lost;

Fear sinks the panting heart in ev'ry bosom,

E'en the pale dead, affrighted at the horror,

 Prev. P 49/187 next