Thou must not live! SCENE II.

-- THE MOTHER; ANTIOCHUS; SIRION, THE MOTHER.
Are they all dead?
ANTIOCHUS.
Of all thy Seven Sons One only lives.

Behold them where they lie How dost thou like this picture?
THE MOTHER.
God in heaven! Can a man do such deeds, and yet not die By the recoil of his own wickedness?
Ye murdered, bleeding, mutilated bodies That were my children once, and still are mine, I cannot watch o'er you as Rispah watched In sackcloth o'er the seven sons of Saul, Till water drop upon you out of heaven And wash this blood away! I cannot mourn As she, the daughter of Aiah, mourned the dead, From the beginning of the barley-harvest Until the autumn rains, and suffered not The birds of air to rest on them by day, Nor the wild beasts by night.

For ye have died A better death, a death so full of life That I ought rather to rejoice than mourn .-- Wherefore art thou not dead, O Sirion?
Wherefore art thou the only living thing Among thy brothers dead?
Art thou afraid?
ANTIOCHUS.
O woman, I have spared him for thy sake, For he is fair to look upon and comely; And I have sworn to him by all the gods That I would crown his life with joy and honor, Heap treasures on him, luxuries, delights, Make him my friend and keeper of my secrets, If he would turn from your Mosaic Law And be as we are; but he will not listen.
THE MOTHER.
My noble Sirion! ANTIOCHUS.
Therefore I beseech thee, Who art his mother, thou wouldst speak with him, And wouldst persuade him.

I am sick of blood.
THE MOTHER.
Yea, I will speak with him and will persuade him.
O Sirion, my son! have pity on me, On me that bare thee, and that gave thee suck, And fed and nourished thee, and brought thee up With the dear trouble of a mother's care Unto this age.