Then what mysterious charm, What fascination is it chains my feet, And keeps me gazing like a curious child Into the holy places, where the priests Have raised their altar ?--Striking stones together, They take fire out of them, and light the lamps In the great candlestick.

They spread the veils, And set the loaves of showbread on the table.
The incense burns; the well-remembered odor Comes wafted unto me, and takes me back To other days.

I see myself among them As I was then; and the old superstition Creeps over me again!--A childish fancy!-- And hark! they sing with citherns and with cymbals, And all the people fall upon their faces, Praying and worshipping!--I will away Into the East, to meet Antiochus Upon his homeward journey, crowned with triumph.
Alas! to-day I would give everything To see a friend's face, or to hear a voice That had the slightest tone of comfort in it! ACT V.
The Mountains of Ecbatana.
SCENE I.-- ANTIOCHUS; PHILIP; ATTENDANTS.
ANTIOCHUS.
Here let us rest awhile.

Where are we, Philip?
What place is this?
PHILIP.
Ecbatana, my Lord; And yonder mountain range is the Orontes.
ANTIOCHUS.
The Orontes is my river at Antioch.
Why did I leave it?
Why have I been tempted By coverings of gold and shields and breastplates To plunder Elymais, and be driven From out its gates, as by a fiery blast Out of a furnace?
PHILIP.
These are fortune's changes.
ANTIOCHUS.
What a defeat it was! The Persian horsemen Came like a mighty wind, the wind Khamaseen, And melted us away, and scattered us As if we were dead leaves, or desert sand.
PHILIP.
Be comforted, my Lord; for thou hast lost But what thou hadst not.
ANTIOCHUS.
I, who made the Jews Skip like the grasshoppers, am made myself To skip among these stones.
PHILIP.
Be not discouraged.
Thy realm of Syria remains to thee; That is not lost nor marred.
ANTIOCHUS.
O, where are now The splendors of my court, my baths and banquets?
Where are my players and my dancing women?
Where are my sweet musicians with their pipes, That made me merry in the olden time?
I am a laughing-stock to man and brute.
The very camels, with their ugly faces, Mock me and laugh at me.
PHILIP.
Alas! my Lord, It is not so.

If thou wouldst sleep awhile, All would be well.
ANTIOCHUS.
Sleep from mine eyes is gone, And my heart faileth me for very care.
Dost thou remember, Philip, the old fable Told us when we were boys, in which the bear Going for honey overturns the hive, And is stung blind by bees?
I am that beast, Stung by the Persian swarms of Elymais.
PHILIP.
When thou art come again to Antioch These thoughts will be as covered and forgotten As are the tracks of Pharaoh's chariot-wheels In the Egyptian sands.
ANTIOCHUS.
Ah! when I come Again to Antioch! When will that be?
Alas! alas! SCENE II -- ANTIOCHUS; PHILIP; A MESSENGER MESSENGER.
May the King live forever! ANTIOCHUS.
Who art thou, and whence comest thou?
MESSENGER.
My Lord, I am a messenger from Antioch, Sent here by Lysias.
ANTIOCHUS.
A strange foreboding Of something evil overshadows me.
I am no reader of the Jewish Scriptures; I know not Hebrew; but my High-Priest Jason, As I remember, told me of a Prophet Who saw a little cloud rise from the sea Like a man's hand and soon the heaven was black With clouds and rain.