PAUL.
If he be false, yet I will still be true,
The ties that bind me I will ne'er undo:
Let fate--Severus--passion--all combine
Against him!--I am his, and he is mine.
Yes, mine to guide, lead, win, forgive, and save!
I seek his honour tho' he court the grave.
Let Polyeucte be Christ's slave!--For woe, for weal,
He is my lord; the bond I owe I seal;
I fear my father,--all his vengeance, dread.

STRAT.
Fierce burns his rage o'er that devoted head;
Yet embers of old love still faintly glow,
And through his wrath some weak compassion show;
'Gainst Polyeucte biting words alone he speaks
But on Nearchus fullest vengeance wreaks!

PAUL.
Nearchus lured him on?

STRAT.
The tempter he;
Such friendship leads to death, or infamy.
Oh, cursed friend, who, in dear love's despite,
Has torn him from thine arms--his neophyte!
He dragged him to the front;--baptized, annealed--
He fights for Christ!--The secret is revealed.

PAUL.