Be silent. You are right;—
But still I cannot listen to your words;
and then goes off in despair, exclaiming,—
O mighty spheres above! O sun! O moon
And stars! O clouds, with hail and sharp frost charged!
Is there no fiery thunderbolt in store
For such a wretch as I? O mighty Jove!
For what canst thou thy vengeance still reserve,
If now it strike not?[641]
But Mariamne obtains secretly a knowledge of his purpose; and, when he arrives in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, gracefully and successfully begs his life of Octavius, who is well pleased to do a favor to the fair original of the portrait he had ignorantly loved, and is magnanimous enough not to destroy a rival, who had yet by treason forfeited all right to his forbearance.