360 SOPHENE AND SOPHOCLES. 



emotions that his proffer excited in me, will you accompany us ? 

 Imlacca I will you ? Ah gods ! if it be so, we have attained the 

 summit of your favour. Love and friendship conspire to make me 

 the happiest of mortals. 



To close Jupiter's feast, it was necessary to offer a sacrifice in the 

 temple of Apollo on the approach of night. I would have absented 

 myself, and made use of that moment to inform Sophene of our plan ; 

 but Dianthea bade me lead Panthia thither. In the agitation I was 

 in, I durst not speak to her. I thought that my words would betray 

 my secret. As long as the ceremony lasted, I was absorbed in the 

 deepest reflections. The company imagined it was religious medi- 

 tation, and yet I did not so much as feign it ; I was admired and 

 cited as a pattern in that respect. How easily are men deceived ! 

 They praised in me what the gods were offended at. 



The sacrifice being over, every one went home. Night befriended 

 me ; never did I see a darker one. At the moment when sleep is so 

 heavy upon human eyes that it becomes the true image of death, I 

 made a desperate step into Sophene's chamber. At last, said I to 

 her, our misfortunes will presently be over; we shall become our 

 own masters, and have nothing to fear from the tyranny ojf our pa- 

 rents. Imlacca is about disposing every thing for our departure ; 

 you will see him soon. Instead of signifying her approbation, she 

 sighed. The consequences of our enterprise engrossed her whole 

 mind, she was troubled. What! was she to run away with me, and 

 look for a retreat among the barbarians ? Would not it bring ever- 

 lasting shame upon her? She fancied what would be Sosthene's fury, 

 and Panthia's despair. She upbraided herself beforehand with so 

 guilty and so bold an elopement, and said, You who advise me to it 

 will yourself be the first to blame me for it. I call heaven and all the 

 powers to witness that if " virtue," without which the tenderest 

 love is criminal, did not oppose it, my only happiness would have 

 been to love and to be loved by you ; but this severe virtue, all 

 powerful over my heart, orders it otherwise. Let us submit; and ? 

 since it does not forbid us to die, let us die without offending the 

 gods. I tried to conquer her scruples; but to no purpose. I put 

 her in mind of her oaths ; but she remembered them only to repine 

 at and abhor them. In a word, my tears and my entreaties served only 

 to render her more unrelenting. Imlacca came in. He added his 

 endeavours to mine : she was moved, but not overcome : it was not 

 danger that stopped her, but duty. 



Night came on ; the hours fled away. I was continually going to 

 and fro from the one to the other; I supplicated, I threatened; but 

 unsuccessfully. Let Love forgive me for it ! In my despair, I was 

 upon the point of having recourse to violence ; but, afraid of her 

 cries, and of being overheard, or rather of falling under her displea- 

 sure, I ceased my pursuit. At last, after an obstinate resistance, and 

 when we had given up all hopes of subduing her, she was informed 



; she 

 e re- 

 paired to the harbour, and got on board. Jupiter! said we, with one 



of Imlacca being to accompany us ; Love seized the opportunity ; 

 held her hand out to me, and we ran away unperceived. We re- 



