Page:Dramas 3.pdf/365

Rh

O mother! raise your eyes! you are to live; We're both to live; my father says we are. And he has wept and he has kiss'd me too, As he was wont to do, ay, fonder far. Come, come! (Pulling her towards Rasinga.) He's good, you need not fear him now.

Artina, that brave child has won thy life; And he hath won for me{bar|2}}I have no words That can express what he hath won for me. But thou art sad and silent; how is this, With life, and such a son to make life sweet?

I have a son, but my brave father, soon,— Who died an honour'd death, and in his grave Lies like an honour'd chief,—will have no son, No male descendant, living on the earth, To keep his name and lineage from extinction. Well timed and wisely spoken: 't is a woman Worthy to be the mother of that boy.

Look, look, I pray thee, how Rasinga's breast Rises and falls beneath its silken vesture.