Answer not, but strike.

DE TRACY.

There is my answer then.

[_Sword falls on_ GRIM'S _arm, and glances from it, wounding_ BECKET.

GRIM.

Mine arm is sever'd.

I can no more--fight out the good fight--die Conqueror. [_Staggers into the chapel of St. Benedict_.

BECKET (_falling on his knees_).

At the right hand of Power-- Power and great glory--for thy Church, O Lord-- Into Thy hands, O Lord--into Thy hands!---- [_Sinks p.r.o.ne_.

DE BRITO.

This last to rid thee of a world of brawls! (_Kills him_.) The traitor's dead, and will arise no more.

FITZURSE.

Nay, have we still'd him? What! the great Archbishop!

Does he breathe? No?

DE TRACY.

No, Reginald, he is dead.

(_Storm bursts_.) [Footnote: _A tremendous thunderstorm actually broke over the Cathedral as the murderers were leaving it.]

DE MORVILLE.

Will the earth gape and swallow us?

DE BRITO.

The deed's done-- Away!

[DE BRITO, DE TRACY, FITZURSE. _rush out, crying 'King's men!'_ DE MORVILLE _follows slowly.

Flashes of lightning thro' the Cathedral_.

ROSAMUND _seen kneeling by the body of_ BECKET.

THE CUP

A TRAGEDY

_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_.

GALATIANS.

SYNORIX, _an ex-Tetrarch_.

SINNATUS, _a Tetrarch_.

_Attendant_.

_Boy_.

_Maid_.

PHOEBE.

CAMMA, _wife of Sinnatus, afterwards Priestess in the Temple of Artemis_.

ROMANS.

ANTONIUS, _a Roman General_.

PUBLIUS.

_n.o.bleman_.

_Messenger_.

THE CUP.

ACT I.

SCENE I.--_Distant View of a City of Galatia_.

As the curtain rises, Priestesses are heard singing in the Temple. Boy discovered on a pathway among Rocks, picking grapes. A party of Roman Soldiers, guarding a prisoner in chains, come down the pathway and exeunt.

_Enter_ SYNORIX (_looking round_). _Singing ceases_.

SYNORIX.

Pine, beech and plane, oak, walnut, apricot, Vine, cypress, poplar, myrtle, bowering in The city where she dwells. She past me here Three years ago when I was flying from My Tetrarchy to Rome. I almost touch'd her-- A maiden slowly moving on to music Among her maidens to this Temple--O G.o.ds!

She is my fate--else wherefore has my fate Brought me again to her own city?--married Since--married Sinnatus, the Tetrarch here-- But if he be conspirator, Rome will chain, Or slay him. I may trust to gain her then When I shall have my tetrarchy restored By Rome, our mistress, grateful that I show'd her The weakness and the dissonance of our clans, And how to crush them easily. Wretched race!

And once I wish'd to scourge them to the bones.

But in this narrow breathing-time of life Is vengeance for its own sake worth the while, If once our ends are gain'd? and now this cup-- I never felt such pa.s.sion for a woman.

[_Brings out a cup and scroll from under his cloak_.

What have I written to her?

[_Reading the scroll_.

'To the admired Gamma, wife of Sinnatus, the Tetrarch, one who years ago, himself an adorer of our great G.o.ddess, Artemis, beheld you afar off worshipping in her Temple, and loved you for it, sends you this cup rescued from the burning of one of her shrines in a city thro'

which he past with the Roman army: it is the cup we use in our marriages. Receive it from one who cannot at present write himself other than 'A GALATIAN SERVING BY FORCE IN THE ROMAN LEGION.'

[_Turns and looks up to Boy_.

Boy, dost thou know the house of Sinnatus?