Chrysanthus.
Reject then
That mistrust; in blood and fire[18]
Martyrdom the rite effecteth:—
(Enter Polemius and Soldiers.)
Polemius.
Here, my soldiers, here they are,
And the hand that death presents them
Must be mine, that none may think
I a greater love could cherish
For my son than for my gods.
And as I desire, when wendeth
Hither great Numerianus,
That he find them dead, arrest them
On the spot, and fling them headlong
Into yonder cave whose centre
Is a fathomless abyss:—
And since one sole love cemented
Their two hearts in life, in death
In one sepulchre preserve them.
Chrysanthus.
Oh! how joyfully I die!
Daria.
And I also, since the sentence
Gives to me the full assurance
Of a happiness most certain
On the day this darksome cave
Doth entomb me in its centre. (They are cast into the abyss.)
Polemius.
Cover the pit's mouth with stones.
(A sudden storm of thunder and lightning: Enter Numerianus, Claudius, Aurelius, and others.
Numerianus.
What can have produced this tempest?
Polemius.
When within the cave they threw them,
Dark eclipse o'erspread the heavens.