No More Learning

--Woe--woe
To the unrivalled city!

_Sar. _ What dost dread? 280

_Sal. _ Thou art guarded by thy foes: in a few hours
The tempest may break out which overwhelms thee,
And thine and mine; and in another day
What _is_ shall be the past of Belus' race.

_Sar. _ What must we dread?

_Sal. _ Ambitious treachery,
Which has environed thee with snares; but yet
There is resource: empower me with thy signet
To quell the machinations, and I lay
The heads of thy chief foes before thy feet.

_Sar. _ The heads--how many?

_Sal. _ Must I stay to number 290
When even thine own's in peril? Let me go;
Give me thy signet--trust me with the rest.

_Sar.
_ I will trust no man with unlimited lives.
When we take those from others, we nor know
What we have taken, nor the thing we give.

_Sal. _ Wouldst thou not take their lives who seek for thine?

_Sar. _ That's a hard question--But I answer, Yes.
Cannot the thing be done without? Who are they
Whom thou suspectest? --Let them be arrested.

_Sal. _ I would thou wouldst not ask me; the next moment 300
Will send my answer through thy babbling troop
Of paramours, and thence fly o'er the palace,
Even to the city, and so baffle all. --
Trust me.

_Sar. _ Thou knowest I have done so ever;
Take thou the signet. [_Gives the signet_.

_Sal.