That vessel, if observ'd, alarms the court, And gives a thousand fatal questions birth: Just in the moment of impending fate, Why stor❜d for flight? and why prepar'd by Gain'd all his heart! at length his eager love Cali ? CALI. This hour I'll beg, with unsuspecting face, And, though refus'd, conceals it from the sultan. LEONTIUS. How can a single hand attempt a life Which armies guard, and citadels enclose? CALI. Forgetful of command, with captive beauties, DEMETRIUS. In Sophia's temple !-What alarm!-Proceed. To her transferr'd the offer of a crown. While with incessant thought laborious man Extends his mighty schemes of wealth and pow'r, And towers and triumphs in ideal greatness; Some accidental gust of opposition Blasts all the beauties of his new creation, In all the sweet oblivion of delight, In all the fopperies of meeting lovers; SCENE IV. CALI, DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS. CALI. Could omens fright the resolute and wise, LEONTIUS. Your artful suit, your monarch's fierce denial, The cruel doom of hapless Menodorus DEMETRIUS. And your new charge, that dear, that heav'nly maid LEONTIUS. All this we know already from Abdalla. DEMETRIUS. Such slight defeats but animate the brave To stronger efforts and maturer counsels. CALI. My doom confirm'd establishes my purpose. DEMETRIUS. The loudest cries of Nature urge us forward; CALI, What passions reign among thy crew, Leontius? Does cheerless diffidence oppress their hearts? Or sprightly hope exalt their kindling spirits' Do they with pain repress the struggling shout, And listen eager to the rising wind? LEONTIUS. All there is hope, and gaiety, and courage, DEMETRIUS. Swift let us rush upon the careless tyrant, Nor give him leisure for another crime. LEONTIUS. Then let us now resolve, nor idly waste Another hour in dull deliberation. CALI. But see, where, destin'd to protract our counsels, Comes Mustapha.-Your Turkish robes conceal you. Retire with speed, while I prepare to meet him With artificial smiles, and seeming friendship. SCENE V. CALI, MUSTAPHA. CALI. I see the gloom that low'rs upon thy brow; MUSTAPHA. How blest art thou, still jocund and serene, Beneath the load of business, and of years! CALI. Sure, by some wond'rous sympathy of souls, MUSTAPHA. The sultan comes, impatient for his love; Conduct her hither; let no rude intrusion Molest these private walks, or care invade These hours assign'd to pleasure and Irene. SCENE VI. MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA, MAHOMET. Now, Mustapha, pursue thy tale of horrour. MUSTAPHA. Confest by dying Menodorus. In his last agonies the gasping coward, Amidst the tortures of the burning steel, Still fond of life, groan'd out the dreadful secret, Held forth this fatal scroll, then sunk to nothing. MAHOMET, examining the paper. His correspondence with our foes of Greece: Betray'd some traitor lurking near my bosom. |