my dust!
Yes--thou mayst put the knife and the poison from my reach--thou mayst
imprison--thou mayst chain me, but the brave soul resolved to escape is
never without means. These hands, naked and unarmed though they be,
shall tear away the bonds of life. Fetter them, and these lips shall
firmly refuse the air. Thou art learned--thou hast read how women have
died rather than meet dishonour. If Glaucus perish, I will not
unworthily linger behind him. By all the gods of the heaven, and the
ocean, and the earth, I devote myself to death! I have said!'

High, proud, dilating in her stature, like one inspired, the air and
voice of Ione struck an awe into the breast of her listener.

'Brave heart!' said he, after a short pause; 'thou art indeed worthy to
be mine. Oh! that I should have dreamt of such a partner in my lofty
destinies, and never found it but in thee! Ione,' he continued rapidly,
'dost thou not see that we are born for each other? Canst thou not
recognize something kindred to thine own energy--thine own courage--in
this high and self-dependent soul? We were formed to unite our
sympathies--formed to breathe a new spirit into this hackneyed and gross
world--formed for the mighty ends which my soul, sweeping down the gloom
of time, foresees with a prophet's vision. With a resolution equal to
thine own, I defy thy threats of an inglorious suicide. I hail thee as
my own! Queen of climes undarkened by the eagle's wing, unravaged by
his beak, I bow before thee in homage and in awe--but I claim thee in
worship and in love! Together will we cross the ocean--together will we
found our realm; and far distant ages shall acknowledge the long race of
kings born from the marriage-bed of Arbaces and Ione!'

'Thou ravest! These mystic declamations are suited rather to some
palsied crone selling charms in the market-place than to the wise
Arbaces. Thou hast heard my resolution--it is fixed as the Fates
themselves. Orcus has heard my vow, and it is written in the book of
the unforgetful Hades. Atone, then, O Arbaces!--atone the past: convert
hatred into regard--vengeance into gratitude; preserve one who shall
never be thy rival. These are acts suited to thy original nature, which
gives forth sparks of something high and noble. They weigh in the
scales of the Kings of Death: they turn the balance on that day when the
disembodied soul stands shivering and dismayed between Tartarus and
Elysium; they gladden the heart in