Bia. Ah, Pyrrha, you've denied my heart
All noble love, but here's a pleasure left.
Soft eyes and gentle bosoms may be mine
Where scorn is taught to sleep and never sting.
... That is Alissa. We must honor her.
[He signals Clearchus, and the others pass out, leaving him to dance alone. As he ventures more flirtatiously about Biades, Pyrrha's disgust increases and she retreats. Clearchus, dancing mockingly, follows her to door, and when she has passed through audaciously closes it]
Bia. Now! Quick! In name of Zeus! The senators
Received my message?
Clea. [Darting to Biades] Ay, the answer's here!
[Gives him a parchment]
Full pardon! Athens will lay down her walls
To make your entry proud! Her gates are small,
For honor she intends you!
Bia. [Glances at parchment and sobs]
My Athens! Mine! Though she should take my life,
And my bruised body fling unburied forth,
Yet would my shade drop kisses on her soil
And weep to leave it for Elysium! [With sudden control]
What of my plan?
Clea. Adopted, in each item.
Soon as the dropping moon is in the sea,
The Athenian rowers, coming as your own,
Will board this galley and bear her a bird
To th' harbor nest.
Bia. They've force to meet the guards?
Clea. Thrice measured, sir. The Theia——
Bia. My own ship!
Clea. Your own—will meet you, every sailor true
As when he wept your banishment. And Phaon,
Critias, Pelagon, Antiganor,
With twenty senators and men of name,
Wait on her deck in welcome.