Thomas Noon Talfourd

“ The Royal Chamber. Adrastus on a couch, asleep.
Enter Ion with the knife.
ION.
Why do I creep thus stealthily along
With trembling steps? Am I not arm'd by Heaven
To execute its mandate on a king
Whom it hath doom'd? And shall I falter now,
While every moment that he breathes may crush
Some life else happy?—Can I be deceived,
By some foul passion, crouching in my soul,
Which takes a radiant form to lure me on?
Assure me, gods!—Yes; I have heard your voices;
For I dare pray ye now to nerve my arm
And see me strike! [He goes to the couch.] ”

“ That bade the long-seal'd fount of love gush out,
While with a prince's constancy he came
To lay his noble life down; and the sure,
The dreadful proof, that he whose guileless brow
Is instinct with her spirit, stood above me,
Arm'd for the traitor's deed?—It is my child!
[Ion, reviving, sinks on one knee before Adrastus.]
ION.
Father! [Noise without.]
MEDON.
The clang of arms!
ION. [starting up]
They come! they come!
They who are leagued with me against thy life.
Here let us fall!
ADRASTUS.
I will confront them yet. ”

“ With torturing hope or idle rage; thy guards,
Palsied with revelry, are scatter'd senseless,
While the most valiant of our Argive youths
Hold every passage by which human aid
Could reach thee. Present death is the award
Of Powers who watch above me while I stand
To execute their sentence.
ADRASTUS.
Thou!—I know thee—
The youth I spared this morning, in whose ear
I pour'd the secrets of my bosom. Kill me,
If thou dar'st do it; but bethink thee first
How the grim memory of thy thankless deed
Will haunt thee to the grave!
ION.
It is most true ”