aughter to myself.

And there the king comes back already! Stop! Suppose I played the
child? This idea is promising. Yes, perhaps I may succeed.

Scene VII.

Aridaeus. Philotas.

ARIDAeUS.

The messengers have now gone, my prince! They have started on their
swiftest horses, and your father's camp is so near at hand, that we can
receive a reply in a few hours.

PHILOTAS.

You are then very impatient, king, to embrace your son once more?

ARIDAeUS.

Will your father be less so to press you to his heart again? But let me
enjoy your company, dearest prince! The time will speed more quickly in
it, and perhaps in other respects it may also have good results, if we
become more intimately acquainted with each other. Often already have
loving children been the mediators of their angry fathers. Follow me
therefore to my tent, where the greatest of my generals await you! They
burn with the desire to see you, and offer you their admiration.

PHILOTAS.

Men must not admire a child, king! Leave me here, therefore, I pray!
Shame and vexation would make me play a very foolish part. And as to
your conversation with me, I do not see at all what good could come of
it. I know nothing else, but that you and my father are involved in
war; and the right--the right, I think, is on my father's side. This I
believe, king! and will believe, even though you could prove the
reverse indisputably. I am a son and a soldier, and have no other
opinion than that of my father and my general.

ARIDAeUS.

Prince! it shows a great intelligence thus to deny one's intelligence.
Yet I am sorry that I shall not ever be able to justify myself before
you. Accursed war!

PHILOTAS.

Yes, truly, an accursed war! And woe to him who caused it.

ARIDAeUS.

Prince! prince! remember that it was your father who first drew the
sword. I do not wish to join in your curses. He was rash, he was too
suspicious.

PHILOTAS.

Well, my father drew the first sword. But does the conflagration only
take its rise when the bright flame already breaks through the roof?
Where is the patient, quiet creature, devoid of all feeling, which
cannot be embittered thr