Arsace eagerly seized upon this idea: her rage and jealousy had but too well prepared her for embracing the cruel expedient.—"You advise well," she replied, "I will take care to have this wretch removed out of our way."—"But who will you get to put your design into execution?" said Cybele, "for though your power here is great, the laws forbid you to put any one to death without the sentence of the judges. You must undergo, therefore, some trouble and delay in framing a fictitious charge against this maiden; and there will, besides, be some difficulty in proving it. To save you the pain and hazard of this proceeding, I am ready to dare and suffer anything. I will, if you think fit, do the deed with poison, and by means of a medicated cup remove our adversary."
Arsace approved, and bid her execute her purpose. She lost no time, but went to the unhappy Chariclea, whom she found in tears, and revolving how she could escape from life of which she was now weary; suspecting as she did the sufferings and imprisonment of Theagenes, though Cybele had endeavoured to conceal them from her, and had invented various excuses for his unusual absence.
The beldame thus addressed her:—"Why will you consume yourself in continual, and now causeless, lamentations? Theagenes is free, and will be with you here this evening. His mistress, angry at some fault which he had committed in her service, ordered him into a slight confinement, but has this day given directions for his release, in honour of a feast which she is preparing to celebrate, and in compliance with my entreaties. Arise, therefore, compose yourself, and refresh your spirits with a slight refection."
"How shall I believe you?" replied the afflicted maiden, "you have deceived me so often, that I know not how to credit what you say."
"I swear to you, by all the gods," said Cybele, "all your troubles shall have an end this day; all your anxiety shall be removed, only do not first kill yourself by abstaining obstinately, as you do, from food. Taste, then, the repast which I have provided."
Chariclea was, with difficulty, persuaded, though she very naturally entertained suspicions; the protestations, however, of the old woman, and the pleasing hopes suggested prevailed at length; (for what the mind desires it believes),[12] and they sat down to the repast.
Cybele motioned to Abra, the slave, who waited upon them, to give the cup, after she had mixed the wine, first to Chariclea; she then took another herself and drank. She had not swallowed all that was presented to her, when she appeared seized with dizziness; and throwing what remained in the cup upon the ground, and casting a fierce look upon the attendant, her body was attacked with violent spasms and convulsions. Chariclea, and all who were in the room, were struck with horror, and attempted to raise and assist her; but the poison, potent enough to destroy a young and vigorous person, wrought more quickly than can be expressed upon her old and worn-out body. It seized the vitals; she was consumed by inward fire; her limbs, which were at first convulsed, became at length stiff and motionless, and a black colour spread itself over her skin. But the malice of her soul was more malignant even than the poison, and Cybele, even in death did not give over her wicked arts; but by signs and broken accents, gave the assistants to understand that she was poisoned by the contrivance of Chariclea. No sooner did she expire than the innocent maiden was bound, and carried before Arsace.
When the princess asked her if she had prepared the fatal draught, and threatened her, if she would not confess the whole truth, that torments should force it from her, her behaviour astonished all the beholders. She did not cast down her eyes; she betrayed no fear; she even smiled, and treated the affair with scorn, disregarding, in conscious innocence, the incredible accusation, and rejoicing in the imputation of the guilt, if through the agency of others, it should bring her to a death, which Theagenes had already undergone. "If Theagenes be alive," said she, "I am totally guiltless of this crime; but if he has fallen a victim to your most virtuous practices, it needs no tortures to extract a confession from me: then am I the poisoner of your incomparable nurse, treat me as if I were guilty, and by taking my life, gratify him who loathed your unhallowed wishes."
Arsace was stung into fury by this: she ordered her to be smitten on the face, and then said—"Take this wretch, bound as she is, and show her her precious lover suffering, as he has well deserved; then load every limb with fetters and deliver her to Euphrates; bid him confine her in a dungeon till to-morrow, when she will receive from the Persian magistrates the sentence of death."
While they were leading her away, the girl who had poured out the wine at the fatal repast, who was an Ionian by nation, and the same who was sent at first by Arsace to wait upon her Grecian guests—(whether out of compassion for Chariclea, whom nobody could attend and not love, or moved by a sudden impulse from heaven,) burst into tears, and cried out—"Ο most unhappy and guiltless maiden!" The bystanders wondering at this exclamation and pressing her to explain its meaning, she confessed that it was she who had given the poison to Cybele, from whom she had received it, in order that it might be administered to Chariclea. She declared, that either overcome by trepidation at the enormity of the action, or confused at the signs made by Cybele, to present the goblet first to the young stranger, she had, in her hurry, changed the cups, and given that containing the poison to the old woman.