Ind. You heard me not inconstancy confess: 
’Twas but a friend’s advice to love me less. 
Who knows what adverse fortune may befal? 
Arm well your mind:  hope little, and fear all. 
Hope, with a goodly prospect, feeds your eye;
Shows, from a rising ground, possession nigh;
Shortens the distance, or o’erlooks it quite;
So easy ’tis to travel with the sight.

Aur. Then to despair you would my love betray,
By taking hope, its last kind friend, away. 
You hold the glass, but turn the perspective,
And farther off the lessened object drive. 
You bid me fear:  In that your change I know;
You would prepare me for the coming blow. 
But, to prevent you, take my last adieu;
I’ll sadly tell my self you are untrue,
Rather than stay to hear it told by you. [Going.

Ind. Stay, Aureng-Zebe, I must not let you go,—­
And yet believe yourself your own worst foe;
Think I am true, and seek no more to know,
Let in my breast the fatal secret lie;
’Tis a sad riddle, which, if known, we die. [Seeming to pause.

Aur. Fair hypocrite, you seek to cheat in vain;
Your silence argues you ask time to feign. 
Once more, farewell!  The snare in sight is laid,
’Tis my own fault if I am now betrayed. [Going again.

Ind. Yet once more stay; you shall believe me true, Though in one fate I wrap myself and you.  Your absence—­

Arim. Hold! you know the hard command,
I must obey:  You only can withstand
Your own mishap.  I beg you, on my knee,
Be not unhappy by your own decree.

Aur. Speak, madam; by (if that be yet an oath)
Your love, I’m pleased we should be ruined both. 
Both is a sound of joy. 
In death’s dark bowers our bridals we will keep;
And his cold hand
Shall draw the curtain, when we go to sleep.

Ind. Know then, that man, whom both of us did trust,
Has been to you unkind, to me unjust. 
The guardian of my faith so false did prove,
As to solicit me with lawless love: 
Prayed, promised, threatened, all that man could do;
Base as he’s great; and need I tell you who?

Aur. Yes; for I’ll not believe my father meant:  Speak quickly, and my impious thoughts prevent.

Ind. You’ve said; I wish I could some other name!

Arim. My duty must excuse me, sir, from blame.  A guard there!

  Enter Guards.

Aur. Slave, for me?

Arim. My orders are To seize this princess, whom the laws of war Long since made prisoner.

Aur. Villain!

Arim. Sir, I know Your birth, nor durst another call me so.

Aur. I have redeemed her; and, as mine, she’s free.

Arim. You may have right to give her liberty;
But with your father, sir, that right dispute;
For his commands to me were absolute,
If she disclosed his love, to use the right
Of war, and to secure her from your sight.