XXXVI.

" Why glar'st thou thus with horrid eyes?
Nay, woman, would'st thou strike a king?
I cannot speak — my shout but sighs —
Help — help — O! snakes my bosom wring. "

XXXVII.

" So, perish, tyrant! know that I
Am wife to him so basely slain;
To me 'twas only left to die —
To die a wretch, but not in vain.

XXXVIII.

" Thou canst not speak, but 'mid thy pang
I still can pierce thy freezing ear;
Though loud the Emperor's triumph rang,
My husband's ghost is monarch here.

XXXIX.

" O God! who bring'st to guilty souls,
By their own hands, the vengeance due;
Thy thunder now above me rolls,
And hails the deed, not bids me rue.

XL.

" The poison works, the brow is stamped,
The hard eye stares, the jaw drops down;
Pale corpse, my spirit too is damped,
And faints before thy lifeless frown.