After [508] End of Act I 1817.

ACT II

Scene I

A savage wood. At one side a cavern, overhung with ivy. Zapolya and Raab Kiuprili discovered: both, but especially the latter, in rude and savage garments.

Raab Kiuprili. Heard you then aught while I was slumbering?

Zapolya. Nothing.
[[918]] Only your face became convulsed. We miserable!
Is heaven's last mercy fled? Is sleep grown treacherous?

Raab Kiuprili. O for a sleep, for sleep itself to rest in!
I dream'd I had met with food beneath a tree, 5
And I was seeking you, when all at once
My feet became entangled in a net:
Still more entangled as in rage I tore it.
At length I freed myself, had sight of you,
But as I hastened eagerly, again 10
I found my frame encumbered: a huge serpent
Twined round my chest, but tightest round my throat.

Zapolya. Alas! 'twas lack of food: for hunger chokes!

Raab Kiuprili. And now I saw you by a shrivelled child
Strangely pursued. You did not fly, yet neither 15
Touched you the ground, methought, but close above it
Did seem to shoot yourself along the air,
And as you passed me, turned your face and shrieked.