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DANIEL.

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 cheerfulnes or peace! No balmy sleep
Has seal'd these eyes, no nourishment has past
These loathing lips, since Daniel's fate was sign'd!
Hear what my fruitless penitence resolves —
The thirty days my rashness had decreed
The edict's force should last, I will devote
To mourning and repentance, fasting, pray'r,
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 every note of joy!
Aras. 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 piecemeal! 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?

DANIEL (from the bottom of the den).

He can he has!

Dar. Methought I heard him speak!
Aras.

Oh! wondrous force

Of strong imagination! were thy voice

Loud as the trumpet's blast, it could not wake him From that eternal sleep!

DANIEL (in the den).

Hail! king Darius !

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

To vindicate my innocence.

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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 demea

nour:

Araspes, mark! they have no power to hurt him! See how they hang their heads and smooth their fierceness

At his mild aspect.

Aras.

Who that sees this sight,

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

Aras.

Ah, he comes, he comes!

Enter DANIEL, followed by multitudes.

Dan. Hail, great Darius !

Dar.

And live unhurt?

Aras.

Dost thou live indeed!

Oh, miracle of joy!

Dar. I scarce can trust my eyes! How didst thou

'scape?

Dan. That bright and glorious Being who vouchsaf'd

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 Araspes.] 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.

Dan.

[ARASPES goes out. Not so, Darius!

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

Dar.

No more!

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

And see what crowds 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 Cour.

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 loyal 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 power 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 rescu'd Daniel from the lion's mouth!
His common deeds are wonders; all His works
One ever-during chain of miracles!

Enter ARASPES.

Aras. All hail, O king! Darius, live for ever! May all thy foes be as Pharnaces is !

Dar. Araspes, speak!

Aras. Oh, let me spare the tale!

'Tis full of horror! Dreadful was the sight! The hungry lions, greedy for their prey, Devour'd the wretched princes ere they reach'd The bottom of the den.

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