ACT V., SCENE 1.

LIBACER _solus_.

LIB. What politician was there ever yet Who, swimming through a sea of plots and treasons, Sank not at last i' th' very haven's mouth? And shall I do so too? No, my thoughts prompt me, I shall be told in story, as the first That stood secure upon the dreadful ruins He had thrown down beneath him. Yet I'm nigh The precipice I strive to shun with so much care. I have betray'd Plangus, 'tis true, and still Have found a growing fortune; but so long As jealousy binds up Ephorbas' thoughts From searching deeper, deeper, 'tis not well That Plangus lives at all: though he be disgrac'd. H' has friends enow about the king, and they Will find a time to pacify him, which will be My undoing. He must not therefore live. Andromana is of that mind too; But how to compass it? or when perhaps I have, what will become of me? Nothing more usual than for those folks, who Have by sinister means reach'd to the top O' th' mountain of their hopes, but they throw down And forget the power that rais'd them; indeed Necessity enforceth them, lest others climb By the same steps they did, and ruin them. I must not therefore trust her womanship, Who, though I know she cannot stand without Me now; yet, when she's queen alone, Fortune may alter her, and make her look Upon me as one whose life whispers Unto her own guilt. 'Tis not safe to be The object of a princess' fear; then she will find Others will be as apt to keep her up As I to raise her. I'll prevent her first. Time is not ripe yet; but when it is (for I must walk on with her a little farther) I will unravel all this labyrinth ev'n To the king himself. Then let her accuse me, Though she should damn herself to hell, I know she'll be believ'd no more Than Plangus hath been hitherto. Thus shall I still grow great, though all the world Be to a dreadful ruin madly hurl'd.

[_Exit._