[Shows Aboan's body on the floor. And yet

I cannot trust him.
Imo. Aboan !

Oro. Mangled and torn, resolved to give me time
To fit myself for what I must expect,
Groaned out a warning to me, and expired.

Imo. For what you must expect ?
Oro. Would that were all.
Imo. What, to be butchered thus-
Oro. Just as thou seest.
Imo. By barb'rous hands to fall at last their prey ?

Oro. I have run the race with honour, shall I now
Lag, and be overtaken at the goal?

Imo. No.
Oro. I must look back to thee.

[Tenderly.
Imo. You sha'not need.
I am always present to your purpose ; say,
Which

way
would

you dispose me? This dagger will instruct you.

[Gives it to him. Oro. Ha! this dagger ! Like fate, it points me to the horrid deed.

Imo. Strike, strike it home, and bravely save us both. There is no other safety.

Oro. It must beBut first a dying kiss

[Kisses her. This last embrace

[Embraces her. And now

Imo. I'm ready.

Oro. O, where shall I strike ?
Is there the smallest grain of that loved body
That is not dearer to me than my eyes,
My bosomed heart, and all the life-blood there?

1
Bid me cut off these limbs, hew off these hands,
Dig out these eyes, though I would keep them last
To gaze upon thee: but to murder thee !
The joy and charm of every ravished sense,
My wife ! forbid it, nature.

Imo. 'Tis your wife,
Who on her knees conjures you.

O! in time,
Prevent those mischiefs that are falling on us.
You may be hurried to a shameful death,
And I too dragged to the vile governor ;
Then I may cry aloud. When you are gone,
Where shall I find a friend again to save me?

Oro. It will be so. Thou unexampled virtue !
Thy resolution has recovered mine :
And now prepare thee.

Imo. Thus, with open arms,
I welcome you and death.

[He drops the dagger as he looks on her,

and throws himself on the ground. Oro. I cannot bear it. O let me dash against the rock of fate, Dig up this earth, and

her bowels out, To make a grave, deep as the centre down, To swallow wide and bury us together! It wo'not be. O! then some pitying god (If there be one a friend to innocence) Find yet a way to lay her beauties down Gently in death, and save me from her blood.

Imo. O rise, 'tis more than death to see you thus. I'll ease your love, and do the deed myself

[She takes up the dagger; he rises in haste

to take it from her.

Oro. O, hold! I charge thee, hold !

Imo. Though I must own
It would be nobler for us both, from you.

Oro. O! for a whirlwind's wing to hurry us
To yonder cliff, which frowns upon the flood;
That in embraces locked we might plunge in,
And perish thus in one another's arms.

Imo. Alas! what shout is that?

Oro. I see 'em coming.
They sha'not overtake us. This last kiss,
And now farewell.

Imo. Farewell, farewell forever!

Oro. I'll turn my face away, and do it so. Now, are you ready?

Imo. Now. But do not grudge me The pleasure, in my death, of a last look ; Pray look upon me.—Now I'm satisfied. Oro. So fate must be by this.

[Going to stab her, he stops short; she lays

her hand on his, in order to give the blow. Imo. Nay, then I must assist you. And since it is the mon cause of both, 'Tis just that both should be employed in it. Thus, thus 'tis finished, and I bless my fate, [Stabs herself. That, where I lived, I die in these loved arms. [Dies. Oro. She's gone.

And now all's at an end with me. Soft, lay her down: O we will part no more.

[Throws himself by her. But let me pay the tribute of my grief, A few sad tears to thy loved memory, And then I follow

[Shouts : weeps over her. But I stay too long.

[A noise again.

The noise comes nearer.

Hold, before I go, There's something would be done.

It shall be so, And then, Imoinda, I'll come all to thee.

[Rises.

Enter BLANDFORD and his party, before the LIEUTENANTGovernor und his party. Swords drawn on both sides.

Lieut. You strive in vain to save him, he shall die.
Bland. Not while we can defend him with our lives.
Lieut. Where is he?

Oro. Here is the wretch whom you would have.
Put up your swords, and let not civil broils
Engage you in the cursed cause of one
Who cannot live, and now entreats to die.
This object will convince you.

Bland. 'Tis his wife. [They gather about the body. Alas! there was no other remedy.

Lieut. Who did the bloody deed ?

Oro. The deed was mine :
Bloody I know it is, and I expect
Your laws should tell me so. Thus, self-condemned,
I do resign myself into your hands,
The hands of justice —But I hold the sword
For you—and for myself.

[Stabs the Governor and himself, then

throws himself by ImoInda's body. 'Tis as it should be now, I have sent his ghost To be a witness of that happiness In the next world, which he denied us here. [Dies.

Bland. I hope there is a place of happiness
In the next world for such exalted virtue.
Pagan or unbeliever, yet he lived
To all he knew : and, if he went astray,

There's mercy still above to set him right.
But Christians, guided by the heavenly ray,
Have no excuse if they mistake their way.

[Exeunt.

Nicholas Rowe.

TAMERLANE.

TAMERLANE overthrows BAJAZET, the Turkish Sultan, and takes him

Prisoner. In the Characters of TAMERLANE and BAJAZET, Rowe professed to draw the Characters of William III. and Louis XIV.

Scene II.— The inside of a magnificent Tent. Symphony

of warlike Music. Enter TAMERLANE, AXALLA, Prince of TANAIS, ZAMA, Mirvan, Soldiers, and other Altendants.

Ax. From this auspicious day the Parthian name
Shall date its birth of empire, and extend
Even from the dawning east to utmost Thu'e
The limits of its sway.

Pr. Nations unknown,
Where

yet

the Roman eagles never flew, Shall

pay their homage to victorious Tamerlane ;
Bend to his valour and superior virtue,
And own that conquest is not given by chance,
But, bound by fatal and resistless merit,
Waits on his arms.

Tam. It is too much : you dress me
Like an usurper, in the borrowed attributes
Of injured Heaven. Can we call conquest ours ?
Shall man, this pigmy, with a giant's pride,