Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PHILOTAS. Scene I. The scene is laid in a tent in the camp of Arid!us. PHILOTAS. Am I really a prisoner ? A prisoner ? A worthy commencement this of my apprenticeship in war. O ye gods! 0 my father! How gladly would I persuade myself that all was but a dream! My earliest years have never dreamt of anything but arms and camps, battles and assaults. Could not the youth too be dreaming now of loss and defeat ? Do not delude thyself thus, Philotas!—If I did not see, did not feel the wound through which the sword dropped from my palsied hand.—They have dressed it for me against my will! 0 cruel mercy of a cunning foe ! " It is not mortal," said the surgeon, and thought to console me. Wretch, it should be mortal! And one wound only, only one! Did I know that I should make it mortal by tearing it open and dressing it and tearing it open again.— 1 rave, unhappy wretch. And with what a scornful face —I now recall it—that aged warrior looked at me—who snatched me from my horse ! He called me—child ! His king, too, must take me for a child, a pampered child. To what a tent he has had me brought! Adorned and provided with comforts of every sort! It must belong to one of his mistresses! A disgusting place for a soldier! And instead of being guarded, I am served. 0 mocking civility! Scene II. Strato. Philotas. Strato. Prince— PHILOTAS. Another visitor already ? Old man, I like to be- alone! Strato. Prince! I come by order of the king. Philotas. I understand yon! It is true, I am the king's prisoner, and it rests with him how he will have me treated. But listen: if you are the man whose features you bear,—if you are an old and honest warrior, have pity on me, and beg the king to have me treated as a soldier, not as a woman. STRATO. He will be with yo...