Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/178

168 ſhould become the greater ſufferer by it. It was not long after this, when he had another violent return of love upon him; Mariamne was therefore ſent for to him, whom he endeavoured to ſoften and reconcile with all poſſible conjugal careſſes, and endearments; but ſhe declined his embraces, and anſwered all his fondneſs, with bitter invectives for the death of her father and her brother.

‘This behaviour ſo incenſed Herod, that he very hardly refrained from ſtriking her when in the heat of their quarrel, there came in a witneſs, ſuborned by ſome of Mariamne’s enemies, who accuſed her to the king of a deſign to poiſon him. Herod was now prepared to hear any thing in her prejudice, and immediately ordered her ſervant to be ſtretched upon the rack; who in the extremity of his tortures confeſt, that his miſtreſſes averſion to the king aroſe from ſomething Sohemus had told her; but as for any deſign of poiſoning, he utterly diſowned the leaſt knowledge of it. This confeſſion quickly proved fatal to Sohemus, who now lay under the ſame ſuſpicions and ſentence, that Joſeph had before him, on the like occaſion. Nor would Herod reſt here; but accuſed her with great vehemence of a deſign upon his life, and by his authority with the judges had her publickly condemned and executed.

‘Herod ſoon after her deceaſe grew melancholy and dejected, retiring from the public adminiſtration of affairs, into a ſolitary foreſt, and there abandoned himſelf to all the black conſiderations, which naturally ariſe from a paſſion made up of love, remorſe, pity and deſpair. He uſed to rave for his Mariamne, and to call upon her in his diſtracted fits; and in all probability, would have ſoon