es, I will look upon thee, and perhaps
look again-for, from this hour,
may behold or hear me more.
hen let me die!

emeya, listen to me!

nas owned its weakness: yet, thank he as'n, y sex's folly, still I bear

ignity: I've not the pow'r he fatal passion in my breast, bury it: yes, yes, Hemeya,

blood is noble, and Florinda

er stoop before thee: from the world
om thee forever!-tears may fall,

shall see the blushes where they hang!-
It not see me weep-thou shalt not have
1 pleasure; in religion's cells

my

wretchedness!-Farewell, Hemeya! ven, if I may dare to lift to thee of earthly passion, touch his heart, ith holy light, and make him thine :wsoe'er thou shalt decide my doom, pour down thy blessings!

[As she

meya!

goes out, she looks back for an instant. [Exit, R. She blest me as she parted; yet I feel fall on my heart! I am doomed to choose en despair and crime! my fate cries out, tched or be guilty; but, Florinda, ould I live without thee?-can I see orm, to which I stretched my desp❜rate arms wild dream of passion and despair,

t to my bosom in assured reality,

sh to clasp it here?—would the faint traveller, ong hath toiled through Afric's sultry sands, o'er the fount that mid the desert gushed, from the burning rock, and die with thirst, its clear freshness wooed him to be blest ?he would drink, though there were poison in it. [Exit, L.

END OF ACT I.

ACT II.

SCENE I-The Exterior of the Inquisition.
Enter MALEC and HALY, L.

Mal. Renounce his people! Haly, I did not think,
As here I journeyed from yon ragged cliffs,
To hear these fatal tidings. Oh, Hemeya!

Hal. After long struggles of reluctant honour, He promised to abjure his nation's creed.

To-day the public rite of abjuration

Is to be solemnized.

Mal. I have heard enough.

Hal. But when you tell what you had come to teach

him;

And he has heard that on his brows shall shine

The crown his fathers wore; when you have told him-
Mal. I will not tell him, till he has deserved

He shall not wear a crown. A diadem
Shall never call him back to honour's road,
If honour could not do it. But I'll try

My wonted power upon him; from its ashes
'Twill not be hard to wake the expiring flame

That once burnt bright within him. Thou, meanwhile,
Call at the Cadi's house the noblest Moors,

That to their secret ears I may unfold

The cause of my return.

Renounce the faith

[Exit Haly,

That suffering had endeared, when twenty thousand
Of his brave countrymen are leagued together,
To break the bonds of Philip's tyranny!

When freedom's flame from yonder mountain tops
Will blaze through Spain's wide realm, he basely falls
Before the tyrant's edict, and obeys !

But hold! he comes! there was a time, Hemeya,
When I had rushed to catch thee in my arms!

Enter HEMEɣa, r.

I charge thee not to touch my garment's edge!

Hem. Oh, Malec, this from thee! when I behold thee, After long months of absence, dost thou scorn me?

Post thou not scorn thyself? I know it all;
not kept thy baseness from mine ears.
a wanton!--

Wanton!

y, a Spanish wanton !

t one of those same melting dames, e prophet's virgin votaries,

men's eyes blaze on unveiled charms, themselves the wooers? 'tis for a wanton ose to be a villain.

I permit you

gainst myself; heap on my head

aviest curse, your blackest reprobation:
heart, and stab; drive in more deep
ow of remorse; but do not dare,
you're my father's friend-

What should I fear?

light boy! and speak not of thy father.
i he sleeps in unattesting marble,
1st thou been a parricide.

I am guilty; I confess that I am guilty.
ou felt what youth and passion feel-
e soft eyes
had ever beamed upon thee;
like me, thou'dst withered in despair,
sh'ning hope rose in this desert heart:
ike me, thou'dst borne her in thy bosom,
ruin flamed above-

Forbear, fond youth! my eyes are palled .lready thy wanton fancy; dost thou think

am made to hear a lover's follies?

I them to the moon, and howl with dogs!
e possess the charms of her who sleeps
the prophet's bosom, I would spurn
an who had renounced, for her embrace,
untry and himself.

. We have no country!

7. Thou hast, indeed, no country?

n. Are we not bound to earth? the lording Spaniard

is on our heads! we groan beneath the yoke shaken, gores more deeply!

tance will but ope new founts of blood

To gush in foaming torrents. Dost thou forget
The Spaniard lifts the sword, and almost wishes
That we should give pretence to tyrarmy?

Look on yon gloomy towers; e'en now we stand
Within the shadows of the Inquisition.

Mal. Art thou afraid? look at yon gloomy towers! Has thy fair union told thee to beware

Of damps and rheums, caught in the dungeon's vapours ?

Or has she said those dainty limbs of thine

Were only made for love? Look on yon towers!

Ay, I will look upon them; not to fear,

But deeply curse them!

There ye stand aloft,

Frowning in all your black and dreary pride,
Monastic monuments of human misery,
Houses of torment, palaces of horror!
Oft have you echoed to the lengthened shriek
Of midnight murder; often have you heard
The deep-choked groan of stifled agony
Burst in its dying whisper; curses on ye!
Curse on the tyrant that sustains you, too!
Oh! may ye one day, from your tow'ring height
Fall on the wretches that uphold your domes,
And crush them in your ruins! Oh, Hemeya!
Look there, Hemeya! think how many Moors,
How many of our wretched countrymen,
Are doomed to perish there, unless-

Hem. By heavens !

Thy burning front, thy flaming eyes, proclaim it! Some glorious thought is lab'ring:-speak!—what mean'st thou?

I feel thy spirit's mastery; my soul

Fires in the glowing contact! Malec, speak!

Tell me, what can we do?

Mal. What can men do

Who groan beneath the lash of tyranny,

And feel the strength of madnes? Have we not cimeters?

'Twas not in vain I sought those rugged heights

Nor vainly do I now again return;

Amid the Alpuxerra's cragged cliffs,

Are there not myriads of high-hearted Moors,

That only need a leader to be free?

e would be a trumpet in the moʻintains,
n their snow-crowned tops and hollow vales,
cho back the blast of liberty!

a not understand me?

Speak! can I free my people? can I rend
meful bonds asunder, and revenge?
Canst thou?

Do not command me not to love;
here be a road to liberty,

d death, with his uplifted dart,

its entrance-speak! is there a way? And, were there not a way,

ew one in the rock!-there is a way. [Crosses, L. My soul hangs in thy lips

I fear thee still. I fear thy wav'ring nature.
No, you wrong me; by heaven, you wrong me!
Fall upon the earth,

thy father's sacred memory

thy people's wrongs-by Allah's name

Enter FLORInda, r.

r. [Interrupting him.] Hold! what is it that I seu! n. A wretch!

7. Swear! quickly swear, before a woman's art thee to that a woman's self should spurn.

r. What should he swear?

l. Forever to renounce thee!

r. Ay! let him, if he will; let him renounce me.

I not say that I am hardly used,

load him with my love! I can bear all,

pt to see him perish.

al. Swear, Hemeya, never to be a Christian !

lor. Hold, for heaven's mercy!

em. Bright angel, art thou come to save, or damn me?

lor. I'm come to tell the perils that surround thee.

el, unkind Hemeya! I perceive

power that Malec holds upon thy soul.

yesterday, e'en at the cloister's gates,

u vowed you would renounce the world for me. Mal. Ay! what is worth much more than all the world ore than the crescent diadem that shines

Selim's turbaned brow! more than the heaven