th bloody vengeance,
I am one: for in these mountains
A grave venerable elder
The first sacrament conferring
With its sacred sign impressed me.
This being so, why wait? Your orders
Give unto the bloody headsman,
Tell him here to strike this neck
And from it my head dissever.
Try my firmness as you will,
For I, resolute and determined,
Will endure a thousand deaths
Since this truth at last I've learned,
That without the great God, whom
Now I seek, adore, and reverence,
Human glories are but ashes,
Dust, smoke, wind, delusive, empty.
[He falls as if in a swoon, with his face to the ground.

GOVERNOR. So absorbed, so lost in wonder,
Cyprian, has thy daring left me,
That considering modes of torture
I have yet not one selected.
Rise. Bestir thee.
[Spurns him with his foot.

FLORUS. As a statue
Formed of ice he lies extended

* * * * *

SCENE XXII.

Soldiers, JUSTINA.--THE SAME.

A SOLDIER. Here, your Highness, is Justina.

GOVERNOR [aside]. I must go, her face unnerves me.--
With this living corse here lying
[Aside to his retinue.
Let us leave her for the present.
For the two being here confined,
It may alter their intentions,
Seeing that they are condemned
Both to die: if not, 'tis certain,
That unless they adore our gods
Frightful torments soon shall end them.

LELIUS [aside]. I remain 'twixt love and fear
Quite bewildered and suspended.

FLORUS [aside]. So affected have I been,
I scarce know what most affects me.

[Exeunt all, except JUSTINA.

* * * * *

SCENE XXIII.

JUSTINA; CYPRIAN, insensible on the ground.

JUSTINA. What! without a word you leave me?
When I come here, calm, contented,
Even to die. Ah! wishing death,
Am I then of death prevented?--
[She perceives CYPRIAN.
But my punishment is, doubtless,
Thus locked up to face the terrors
Of a slow and lingering death,
With the body of this wretch here
Left alone, my sole companion
Being a corse. O thou, re-entered
Into thy original earth,
Happy wert thou, if thy sentence
Was passed on thee for the faith
I adore!

CYPRIAN [recovering consciousness]