Chapter 21

Enter_ Amintas _in Fetters with _Urania.

_Amin_. My gallant Maid! this Generosity, Above thy Sex, and much above my Merit, I never can repay: my dear _Urania_, Thou did’st outdo thy Sex before in Beauty, In all the Charms that make ‘em so ador’d: But this last Act, this noble Mark of Love, Begets a reverend Wonder in my Soul, And I behold thee as some sacred thing, That--this way should be worship’d-- [_Kneels_, _and kisses her Hand_.

_Ura_. I’m glad you have so kind a Sense of that Which ev’ry Maid that lov’d like me wou’d do; What cou’d you less expect?--Ah, my _Amintas_, That fatal Night before our Wedding-day, Being alarm’d by the Enemy, And you were sent to try your Force with theirs, My Heart foretold your Fate; and that same Night, Whose darkness veiled my Blushes all alone, Drest like a Youth I hasted from the Court, And being well mounted, soon o’ertook the Army, When, all unknown, I got so near your Person, That in the Fight I had the Glory twice To serve you, when your Horses being kill’d, I still presented you with fresh, whose Riders Thy Valour had dismounted.

_Amin_. Oh Gods! wert thou that Boy, Whom oft I said, I thought was sent from Heaven, And beg’d t’ encounter when the Fight was ended?

_Ura_. The same, ‘twas all you’d time to say; for after that, Venturing too far, they took you Prisoner.

_Amin_. Oh, with what Shame I look upon your Bounty, Which all my Life’s too little to acknowledge; What follow’d then, my dearest fair _Urania_?

_Ura_. I gladly wou’d have been a Prisoner too, But I appear’d a poor dejected Boy, That was not worth their Fetters. --Then I resolv’d upon this last Adventure, To make my Application to the Princess, Knowing her noble Nature, To try (since mighty Ransoms were refus’d) What simple Love would do; and in my way I lighted on a Druid, who in’s Youth Had liv’d in Courts, but now retir’d to Shades, And is a little Monarch o’er his Flocks; To him I told my Story, who encourag’d me in my resolv’d design, And I so luckily have made an Interest In _Cleomena’s_ Heart, These Chains she’as given me Freedom to dismiss, And you must only wear Love’s Fetters now: [_She takes off his Chains_. --Come, haste, _Amintas_, from this horrid Place, And be thy self again, appear in Arms. The _Scythians_ are encampt within thy View, And e’er three Births of Day the Armies meet; Th’ Event of which, I at the _Druid_’. Cell Will wait; sending continual Vows to Heaven For thy dear Safety: there when the Fight is done, I wish to meet thee; --But now your Country and your King expect you, And I love Glory equal to _Amintas_.

_Amin_. But yet the generous Bounty of the Princess Obliges here, no less than Duty there; I know not how the Gods of War to move To grant me Victor, or the vanquish’d prove; My Heart to either is not well inclin’d, Since--vanquish’d I am lost, conquering unkind.

[_Exeunt_.