Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/177

Rh ‘Herod was at length acquitted, and diſmiſs’d by Mark Anthony, when his ſoul was all in flames for his Mariamne; but before their meeting he was not a little alarmed at the report he had heard of his uncle’s converſation and familiarity with her in his abſence. This therefore was the firſt diſcourſe he entertained her with, in which ſhe found it no eaſy matter to quiet his ſuſpicions. But at laſt he appeared ſo well ſatisfied of her innocence; that from reproaches, and wranglings, he fell to tears and embraces. Both of them wept very tenderly at their reconciliation, and Herod pour’d out his whole ſoul to her in the warmeſt proteſtations of love and conſtancy; when amidſt all his ſighs and languiſhings, ſhe aſked him, whether the private orders he left with his uncle Joſeph were an inſtance of ſuch an enflamed affection? The jealous king was immediately rouſed at ſo unexpected a queſtion, and concluded his uncle muſt have been too familiar with her, before he would have diſcovered ſuch a ſecret. In ſhort he put his uncle to death, and very difficultly prevailed on himſelf to ſpare Mariamne.

‘After this he was forced on a ſecond journey into Egypt, when he committed his lady to the care of Sohemus, with the ſame private orders he had before given his uncle, if any miſchief befelbefell [sic] himſelf: In the mean time Mariamne had ſo won upon Sohemus, by her preſents and obliging behaviour, that ſhe drew all the ſecret from him, with which Herod had entruſted him; ſo that after his return, when he flew to her, with all the tranſports of joy and love, ſhe received him coldly with ſighs and tears, and all the marks of indifference and averſion. This reception ſo ſtirred up his indignation, that he had certainly ſlain her with his own hands, had not he feared he