“But, O ye Gods! and thou, whom gods obey,Great Jove! with pity listen as I pray!Respect the monarch's and the father's prayer!If Pallas' safety be your heavenly care;If to infold him in these arms againI live, for life I sue with all its pain.But if some dreadful fortune be design'd,Now, now, while hope still soothes my cheated mind;Ere yet the future shall its fates unfold;While thus my son, my last, sole joy, I hold;O! break life's chain at once, and let me go,By darkness shrouded, from the death of woe!”