ABDALLA. 
It parts you now—­The hasty sultan sign’d
The laws unread, and flies to his Irene.

DEMETRIUS. 
Fix’d and intent on his Irene’s charms,
He envies none the converse of Aspasia.

ABDALLA. 
Aspasia’s absence will inflame suspicion;
She cannot, must not, shall not, linger here;
Prudence and friendship bid me force her from you.

DEMETRIUS. 
Force her! profane her with a touch, and die!

ABDALLA. 
’Tis Greece, ’tis freedom, calls Aspasia hence;
Your careless love betrays your country’s cause.

DEMETRIUS. 
If we must part—­

ASPASIA. 
No! let us die together.

DEMETRIUS. 
If we must part—­

ABDALLA. 
Despatch; th’ increasing danger
Will not admit a lover’s long farewell,
The long-drawn intercourse of sighs and kisses.

DEMETRIUS. 
Then—­O! my fair, I cannot bid thee go. 
Receive her, and protect her, gracious heav’n! 
Yet let me watch her dear departing steps;
If fate pursues me, let it find me here. 
Reproach not, Greece, a lover’s fond delays,
Nor think thy cause neglected, while I gaze;
New force, new courage, from each glance I gain,
And find our passions not infus’d in vain. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.—­SCENE I.

DEMETRIUS, ASPASIA, enter as talking.

ASPASIA. 
Enough—­resistless reason calms my soul—­
Approving justice smiles upon your cause,
And nature’s rights entreat th’ asserting sword. 
Yet, when your hand is lifted to destroy,
Think, but excuse a woman’s needless caution,—­
Purge well thy mind from ev’ry private passion,
Drive int’rest, love, and vengeance, from thy thoughts;
Fill all thy ardent breast with Greece and virtue;
Then strike secure, and heav’n assist the blow!

DEMETRIUS. 
Thou kind assistant of my better angel,
Propitious guide of my bewilder’d soul,
Calm of my cares, and guardian of my virtue!

ASPASIA. 
My soul, first kindled by thy bright example,
To noble thought and gen’rous emulation,
Now but reflects those beams that flow’d from thee.

DEMETRIUS. 
With native lustre and unborrow’d greatness,
Thou shin’st, bright maid, superiour to distress;
Unlike the trifling race of vulgar beauties,
Those glitt’ring dewdrops of a vernal morn,
That spread their colours to the genial beam,
And, sparkling, quiver to the breath of May;
But, when the tempest, with sonorous wing,
Sweeps o’er the grove, forsake the lab’ring bough,
Dispers’d in air, or mingled with the dust.

ASPASIA. 
Forbear this triumph—­still new conflicts wait us,
Foes unforeseen, and dangers unsuspected. 
Oft, when the fierce besiegers’ eager host
Beholds the fainting garrison retire,
And rushes joyful to the naked wall,
Destruction flashes from th’ insidious mine,
And sweeps th’ exulting conqueror away. 
Perhaps, in vain the sultan’s anger spar’d me,
To find a meaner fate from treach’rous friendship—­
Abdalla!—­