must have meant no good by his dear pupils when he appealed to omens and backed himself by prodigies. Alc. Did all mind them as little as I do, a drop of rain would scarcely break up an assembly, or a diseased liver quell the courage of ten thousand men. But since such things will happen-since I cannot help remembering that panic which preceded the Sicilian War-hard enough to quiet at the time, and amply justified, in vulgar estimation, by the issue I am any thing rather than indifferent about this accident-I even tremble more perhaps than any Athenian of them all for its consequences. Tim. Consequences! What? You really imagine Alc. O, I know the people! The highest claim upon their friendship has that Leader, who seems to be also the friend of Heaven. Fearless, at his word, will thousands rush upon destruction. His guardian Power, they deem, will blunt the hostile ar rows and palsy the foeman's arm. But with quaking hearts do they follow an Agamemnon if a Calchas forebode him wo. Let a bird but rustle, they flee from an imaginary ambush— let the least mischance befall them, their first thoughts are treason and surrender. And therefore-(he pauses for two moments, as if arrested by a sudden thought, and then leaps hastily from the bed). Ha, I have it! I have the antidote! Rejoice, Timandra, I have it and I owe it to one word of thine! (Clasping her with transport). Tim. By Pallas and by Venus, I tremble for thy brains! This couch Alc. (smiling). Fear not. In an Tim. (Gazing after him). Wholly, And so, as Xenophon tells us in less than a score of words, the first exploit of the new Plenipotentiary was to celebrate the Eleusinian Mysteries with all their ancient pomp and land-procession, instead of sneaking along the coast by sea, as the Athenians had been hitherto forced to do, ever since Agis and the Spartans had hung over them at Deceleia. Nor was the spectacle, we dare say, a whit the worse for the turn-out of the whole Attic forces to protect it. It was a classical crusade-valour championing religion. Better device there could not be for stopping envious mouths, and putting the Plynteria out of heads that seldom carried two ideas at a time. Now is Alcibiades more popular than ever. Polite requests are made to him-according to Plutarch that he will at once abolish the privileges of the people and the laws, and quell those busy spirits who would otherwise be the ruin of the state." We will give him credit for declining this policy on patriotic principles. It looks at least very like it, that, within three months of his appointment to autocracy, he sailed once more from the Peiræus against the revolted isle and city of Andros. Here the Lacedemonians had a force to aid the rebels. They waited under arms to encounter the Athenian chief. It was his last victory, and this his last appeal to soldiers who adored him. "To inflame your valour I might number up more topics than the Heaven has stars to show or the ocean islands. Your duty to the land of your fathers-your former trophies-your swelling hopes-on a thousand themes like these I might expatiate. But I pass them by. Our CAUSE breathes its own exhortation, and ye will listen to it. One thing alone, I beseech you, one thing ponder well! I, once the leader of your enemies, speak from an experience no Greek has ever had before me. For an Athenian to be daring is twofold more glorious than for a Spartan. No wonder if the Spartan greet with indifference or with joy the death of a soldier! What does he lose, in losing life, but a load of pain and toil? But since ye have a better lot on this side of the grave, a higher praise must follow you beyond it, when in the spirit of a nobler self-devotion ye are brave in the right place—and that right place is HERE!" With a joyous clashing of their shields, and a still more joyous shout, the warriors answered him. The thunderbolt descends not more inevitably upon the oak it shivers than the Athenians rushed upon the foe. The longest summer's day has its meridian point at which the sun begins to take its downward course, and oft we hail that point with glad emotions, gratefully anticipating the balmy cool of eve. But, O! how different it is to mark the zenith of a great man's destiny, to see the light of his glory suddenly stand still, and soon "towards Heaven's descent sloping its west'ring wheel." We have reached that point in the life of Alcibiades. The victory at Andros was not followed by the capture of the town. And "whenever," says the Baotian biographer, " Alcibiades happened to fail in what he undertook, it was suspected to be from want of inclination, not from want of ability. They thought nothing too hard for him." He was the martyr of his own genius. Fortune, so often his friend, would not be his slave. Murmurs from the shores of Attica were wafted to him on the wings of Zephyr. He heard them, and laughed. "Pallas herself," he exclaimed, "is subject to Fate. Would they have the protected mightier than his protectress?" His words were in earnest-not so was his laughter. We must patch again with Plutarch. "Lysander, the Lacedemonian admiral, out of the money he received from Cyrus, raised the wages of each mariner from three oboli a-day to four, whereas it was with difficulty that Alcibiades paid his men three. The latter, therefore, went into Caria to raise money, leaving the fleet in charge of Antiochus Expressly commanded by Alcibiades to let no provocation from the enemy induce him to hazard an engagement, yet". We will not forestall Scene XX. Only observe that its place is Miletus, its time evening, and the persons Alcibiades, Timandra, Alexion, Menander, with other friends and guests at the table of the chief. SCENE XX. A BANQUET. Alc. Nay, midnight is still far off, and we must greet it when it comes. But this one goblet more, my brothers! 'Tis the last of my Syracusan wine. Tim. (laughing). The last? That alters the matter. See, I claim a second filling of the cup I have emptied already. All. And we follow the beautiful Timandra. Tim. 'Tis but fair, too, that these last cups ring clearer than the rest when we join them. Cheerily, my friends, cheerily! (They join cups all round). Alc. The word was never more in season. brothers, to-day ye have not altogether contented me. Even this burst of mirth, to which Timandra roused you, broke off too suddenly. All my efforts seemed to fall on you like sparks upon damp tinder. The very plaudits you now and then bestowed sounded. not as coming from the heart. All. No! no!-the son of Clinias for ever! Alc. Not to me, but to our absent friends be this cup devoted-to Antiochus before them all! Men. (in spite of himself). O that he could hear of it! Alc. Hear of it he shall-through my lips and yours. Alex. Ah! Alc. (surprised). Thou sighest! Wherefore? Tim. (laughing). A sigh for the Carian maid he loves and leaves behind. Alc. Take her with thee, friend; take her with thee! If love cannot win her, try stratagem. Rapes are not yet out of fashion; commodious are our ships, and the berths may be -widened. Tim. You think then of an early Alc. (fretfully). Again that sigh! Tell me, I adjure ye, what is the matter? I have sworn a yet more deadly hate to sorrow than to Sparta. Tim. Even when calamities befall thyself? Alc. Even then-by all the gods -even then! Tim. Well then, I will put thee to the proof. Let us see whether this oath were more serious than thy common love-vows. Son of Clinias, known to thee is that decree of the immortals, whereby rebuking human pride, they have linked, from all eternity, mischance with prosperous fortune; and therefore Alc. Ha, what is this? A curse on thee, Timandra-a curse upon our love, if thou torment me more with this prefatory phrasing! Speak, what is it? Be terrible-if so it must be but be brief! Tim. Right!'Tis only my sex such words of preface might beseem. Thine is of sterner stuff. Be then a MAN!-lift up that goblet brimming full, that we may see whether thy heart throbs not, thine arm shakes not, when I tell thee-eighteen ships thou here bestowest on the Athenians; but fifteen has Antiochus-mean whilelost. Thou art mute!-Lift up the goblet, I say, without one shudder, that we may discern in thee the man and the unmovable hero. Some. (hiding their faces). Ye gods! Alc. (in a solemn tone, having first glanced round the circle, then fixed his eyes upon TIMANDRA). I lift the goblet, and I shake not. I lift it and may each drop that falls be fire for ever in my soul! Yet I deny it not, thy speech hath pierced my heart like arrows.-Fifteen ships lost by Antiochus!-How was it? Who brought this dreadful news?-Is't sure ?—Is't undisputed? Tim. Not more certain are thy life and my love. A messenger despatched from Samos brought it. He would have burst in upon thee while yet engaged with the Milesian council—I kept him back. Alc. And why? Tim. Because I knew not if this intelligence were yet proper for all ears; because I thought 'twould be more supportable by thee, after a merry feast and glowing wine had given thee new force and spirit to endure it. At least this used to be thy way of thinking. Alc. Used to be, and is !-But, where are the letters? Tim. Nowhere. Alc. How?and Antiochus- Alc. (disturbed). Writes not?-not at all? Fixedly thou gazest on me-unspoken words are hovering on thy lips. Timandra, I adjure thee—speak! tell! conclude! Tim. Antiochus forgot thy counsel challenged, with a portion of his fleet, Lysander Alc. Ha, the senseless-but no! he is still my friend. Go on! Tim. And Lysander came; at first with a few galleys, that held Antio chus engaged; then forth came the whole Spartan fleet in line of battle. The Athenians hastened to support their countrymen. They fought bravely, but in broken order. The Spartans conquered. Fifteen ships they have taken; of the crews but few were captured. Alc. Still one ray of hope! Kind Timandra, I thank thee.-But Antiochus ? Tim. Proved himself worthy of thy heart. His disgrace and his errors he was not able to-(hesitates)— Alc. (in agony). Timandra-by all the gods was not able to do what? Tim. Survive. He fell like a hero, who could err, and expiate his errors!-fell in the thickest of the fight! Alc. (with a cry of despair). Antiochus dead!-dead! He, my first friend and my last! O then, away with hero pride, and hero calmness! Nature thou_triumphest.-Antiochus dead! Dreadful Jove!-now do I believe in thine omnipotence. This bolt smites deep-through heart and brain.(Springing up). Brothers, farewell! All. Whither, Alcibiades-O, whi ther? Alc. (turning round). True! that I had forgotten. To-morrow we depart ! See ye to that, my friends. Give ye the orders. Sobs would choke me, did I myself essay it. (Rushes out). Tim. (calling after him). Whither? Do these tears dishonour thee? Did ever tears of pity misbecome a man— that thou wilt not shed them in our company?-Stay! stay!-He hears me not. I never saw him thus: but I must follow him-must sound in his ear who and what he was-that Athens may still preserve her guardian, we our friend. To any one that may venture in the lapse of ages yet unborn to take up this subject after Meissner and us, we recommend matter for four most superior Tableaux between the preceding scene and that which is about to follow. In one let Timandra-not pour unheeded consolation into her lover's ears-but "chastise him with the valour of her tongue," until all his soul be roused to vengeance. In another, let the baffled man be seen, having come back from Ephesus to Samos, after a vain attempt to provoke Lysander to the combat: let him receive a letter from Aspasia (we have half a mind to try our own hand upon that), announcing that his ruin is again plotted at Athens, and warning him to flee : let him hint to Timandra, and the friends that still adhere to him, that he has a refuge prepared in Thrace. A third should show the flight begun :-let Alcibiades and Timandra have the boards to themselves in the first instancebut Diophantes, too fond of both to forego their company, contrives to be included in the party. A fourth may bring the exile to his Thracian castle, near Bisanthe. And once there-stand aside, good Mr Merriman-we must buckle to this gear in our own proper person. SCENE XXI. Morning-The Chamber of TIMANDRA. Dioph. Too early, perhaps. Dioph. Therefore still less will this. (Snatching a kiss). Tim. (struggling). 'Twere a good deed to wake him now-and you deserve I should. Dioph. Deserve it not, you mean. Is the friend, after days of absence, not worthy of at least one kiss, when the lover gets ten? Besides, himfor whom I would willingly pour out my blood to the last drop-whom never word nor thought of mine deceived him in one single point I could betray with easy conscience. Tim. Excellent!-And that point is? Dioph. Love! It would be but paying him back in his own coin-no more. O Timandra, not equal to thee for how could that be possible? --but at least like thee was the damsel I once found in his arms, and who until that hour had reposed in mine. Only by way of retaliation Tim. (austerely). I am in earnest, Diophantes, when I tell thee-back! You men appear to think you must babble of nought but love, when you find us alone. Come now, rehearse me your adventures. Dioph. Has he not done that already? Tim. How should he, when you returned so late at night, and he is still asleep? Dioph. (enthusiastically). O Timandra, what a man is that! Numberless, says some one or other with truth, are the wonders of nature: but, at the same time, boundless is the space she has to work in. How narrow, on the contrary, is the lodging of this spirit, and yet, by the eternal powers, its wonders too are infinite. Tim. Very true, and by me readily admitted! Only, what incites thee at present to this Pindaric eulogy? Dioph. Experience of the last eight days. Lo now, I had known him already in good fortune and in bad, in war and in jollity, in feasting and in exile; among Spartans, Athenians, and Persians. He was never the same, and yet always like himself. Simple, compared to him, were the colours of the rainbow, and yet would he seem as smooth and limpid as the waters of some breezeless pool. But now-now! O, by the gods of Greece, his last part was not his easiest. Tim. What then was he playing? That of Thracian, without doubt. Dioph. And to what perfection! Here, too, the first of all! First at the court of Seuthes, as once at the court of Tissaphernes. You remember how we laughed, when he exchanged the graceful garb of Attica for the barbarous raiment of these parts-arming his back with bow and quiver, his thigh with a Thracian scymitar. But you should have seen him when he entered the prince's hall in this costume: then would you have owned that even such rusticity sat nobly on him. Tim. O I do believe it-believe it readily. So. Dioph. Proudly, as is the fashion of the country, did Seuthes eye him. Not longer than one second looked he Then was astonishment his first, admiration his second emotion. He advanced to meet him; offered him hand and lips; and the Son of Clinias returned the pressure and the kiss, as if he had received-not a special favour, but a common salutation. The prince placed him next himself. Their talk was of war and of the chase. Every sentence that dropped from the mouth of Alcibiades was uttered in wisdom, and strengthened by experience. In order to display his treasures, Seuthes ordered the horses to be brought forth. In them, as you know, consists the Thracian's greatest wealth, and in training. of them his highest art. Hence you may guess how beautiful were the horses of Seuthes. Alcibiades pronounced on them with the look and tone of an adept ; above all the rest he rated one of them, that trod the earth with a majestyglanced round him with a fire-as if he had been wont to draw the chariot of the war-god himself to battle. Tim. (smiling). O keep to prose, my good Diophantes ! Dioph. He too-thy lover-generally so sparing of his praise, was now extravagant in the expressions of his admiration. "And yet it is only his shape," answered Seuthes," that determines me to keep him. It is impossible to break the animal. I myself have never mounted him: one only individual will he bear as rider." "And this individual?"" Is the man who bred him."-" Ha! a peculiarity," cried Alcibiades, and his cheeks already glowed;-" that makes this noble creature yet nobler in my eyes! Seuthes, Seuthes, I ask thee but a single favour. Suffer me to mount him." Tim. May I pass for more mendacious than Cassandra, if I foresaw not this request. Dioph. Seuthes gravely shook his head; all we Greeks pressed anxiously round Alcibiades; with the most emphatic earnestness I adjured him, in the Persian tongue, not to draw upon himself such needless danger. He laughed, and remained unmoved. "Seuthes," he said, "hadst thou described to me this horse as quite untameable, my entreaty had been frenzy, or at least fool-hardiness. But the horse that endures one rider, will en |