ou rue it after, blame not me.

_Arn._ Let her but live!

_Caes._ The Spirit of her life
Is yet within her breast, and may revive.
Count! count! I am your servant in all things,
And this is a new office:--'tis not oft 170
I am employed in such; but you perceive
How staunch a friend is what you call a fiend.
On earth you have often only fiends for friends;
Now _I_ desert not mine. Soft! bear her hence,
The beautiful half-clay, and nearly spirit!
I am almost enamoured of her, as
Of old the Angels of her earliest sex.[250]

_Arn._ Thou!

_Caes._ I! But fear not. I'll not be your rival.

_Arn._ Rival!

_Caes._ I could be one right formidable;
But since I slew the seven husbands of 180
Tobias' future bride (and after all
Was smoked out by some incense),[251] I have laid
Aside intrigue: 'tis rarely worth the trouble
Of gaining, or--what is more difficult--
Getting rid of your prize again; for there's
The rub! at least to mortals.

_Arn._ Prithee, peace!
Softly! methinks her lips move, her eyes open!

_Caes._ Like stars, no doubt; for that's a metaphor
For Lucifer and Venus.

_Arn._ To the palace
Colonna, as I told you!

_Caes._ Oh! I know 190
My way through Rome.

_Arn._ Now onward, onward! Gently!
[_Exeunt, bearing_ OLIMPIA. _The scene closes_.

PART III.

SCENE I.--_A Castle in the Apennines, surrounded by a wild
but smiling Country. Chorus of Peasants singing before the Gates_.

_Chorus_.

I.

The wars are over,
The spring is come;
The bride and her lover
Have sought their home:
They are happy, we rejoice;
Let their hearts have an echo in every voice!

II.

The spring is come; the violet's gone,
The first-born child of the early sun:[dt]
With us she is but a winter's flower,
The snow on the hills cannot blast her bower, 10
And she lifts up her dewy eye of blue
To the youngest sky of the self-same hue.

III.