o expect it from you;
Nor could, indeed, with reason.

_Amal._ Name any other thing! Is Amalthea
So despicable, she can serve your wishes
In this alone?

_Leon._ If I should ask of heaven,
I have no other suit.

_Amal._ To show you, then, I can deny you nothing,
Though 'tis more hard to me than any other,
Yet I will do it for you.

_Leon._ Name quickly, name the means! speak, my good angel!

_Amal._ Be not so much o'erjoyed; for, if you are,
I'll rather die than do't. This night the court
Will be in masquerade;
You shall attend on me; in that disguise
You may both see and speak to her,
If you dare venture it.

_Leon._ Yes; were a god her guardian,
And bore in each hand thunder, I would venture.

_Amal._ Farewell, then; two hours hence I will expect you:--
My heart's so full, that I can stay no longer. [_Exit._

_Leon._ Already it grows dusky: I'll prepare
With haste for my disguise. But who are these?

_Enter_ HERMOGENES _and_ EUBULUS.

_Her._ 'Tis he; we need not fear to speak to him.

_Eub._ Leonidas?

_Leon._ Sure I have known that voice.

_Her._ You have some reason, sir: 'tis Eubulus,
Who bred you with the princess; and, departing,
Bequeathed you to my care.

_Leon._ My foster-father! let my knees express
My joys for your return! [_Kneeling._

_Eub._ Rise, sir; you must not kneel.

_Leon._ E'er since you left me,
I have been wandering in a maze of fate,
Led by false fires of a fantastic glory,
And the vain lustre of imagined crowns.
But, ah! why would you leave me? or how could you
Absent yourself so long?

_Eub._ I'll give you a most just account of both:
And something more I have to tell you, which
I know must cause your wonder; but this place,
Though almost hid in darkness, is not safe.
Already I discern some coming towards us [_Torches appear._
With lights, who may discover me. Hermogenes,
Your lodgings are hard by, and much more private.

_Her._ There you may freely speak.

_Leon._ Let us make haste;
For some affairs, and of no small importance,
Call me another way. [_Exeunt._

SCENE II.

_Enter_ PALAMEDE _and_ RHODOPHIL, _with Vizor Masques in their
Hands, and Torches before them._

_Pala._ We shall have noble sport to-night, Rhodophil; this
masquerading is a most glorious invention.

_Rho._ I believe it was invented first by some jealous lover, to
discover the ha