Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/116

 for thy sake, who bore all for the love of thee?—Be merciful, Carlos, or kill me!"

—"No, Elmira, thou shall never die but with me. Tell me, what shall I do?"

—"Fly—'tis the only resource we have. Fly with me; no flower blooms for us here. The farther we go, the happier shall we be in a distant country."

—"But how shall I escape the invisible arms, that incompass me on all sides? How rescue thee from their grasps? Teach me the way, my lovely spouse. Thou seemest to keep a secret, Elmira, impart it to me, to save us both."

—"No, save us first, else they would murder me in thine arms. O thou shalt know, how they impose on and sport with thy generous heart; how they strive under the mask of friendship, to seduce thee to the foulest and blackest of crimes. All the sublime ideas they offered to thy noble mind, rally in one common centre of wickedness, I found it out; I was to die a second time; but threw myself in thy pitying arms.