REMORSE. ACT I. SCENE I.-The sea shore on the coast of Don Alvar, wrapt in a boat cloak, and Zulimez (a Moresco), both as just landed. Zul. No sound, no face of joy to welcome us! Zul. Then claim your rights in it! O, revered Yet, yet give up your all too gentle purpose. And let the guilty meet the doom of guilt! Alv. Remember, Zulimez! I am his brother, Injured indeed! O deeply injured! yet Ordonio's brother. Zul. Nobly minded Alvar! This sure but gives his guilt a blacker dye. Alv. The more behoves it, I should rouse within him Remorse grows: that I should save him from himself. Zul. Remorse is as the heart in which it If that be gentle, it drops balmy dews Of true repentance; but if proud and gloomy, It is a poison-tree, that pierced to the inmost Weeps only tears of poison. Alv. And of a brother, Dare I hold this, unproved? nor make one effort To save him?---Hear me, friend! I have yet to tell thee, That this same life, which he conspired to take, Himself once rescued from the angry flood, And at the imminent hazard of his own. Zul. You have thrice told already The years of absence and of secrecy, To which a forced oath bound you: if in truth A suborned murderer have the power to dictate A binding oath-- Alv. My long captivity Left me no choice: the very wish too languished The murderous weapon, pointed at my breast, Zul. Heavy presumption ! Alv. It weighed not with me---Hark! I will tell thee all; As we passed by, I bade thee mark the base The morning of the day of my departure. Had'st thou seen How in each motion her most innocent soul Beamed forth and brightened, thou thyself would'st Guilt is a thing impossible in her! She must be innocent! Zul. [tell me, Proceed, my lord! Alv. A portrait which she had procured by stealth, (For even then it seems her heart foreboded Or knew Ordonio's moody rivalry) A portrait of herself with thrilling hand To my own knowledge: nor did she desist, Alv. My own life wearied me! And but for the imperative voice within, With mine own hand I had thrown off the burthen. That voice, which quelled me, calmed me : and I sought The Belgic states: there joined the better cause; And still the more I mused, my soul became Zul. Some furlong hence. Secrete the boat there. All, all are in the sea-cave, I bade our mariners I will first seek to meet Ordonio's---wife ! If possible, alone too. This was her wonted walk, And this the hour; her words, her very looks Will acquit her or convict. Zul. Will they not know you ? Alv. With your aid, friend, I shall unfearingly Trust the disguise; and as to my complexion, My long imprisonment, the scanty food, This scar,---and toil beneath a burning sun, Have done already half the business for us. Add too my youth ;---since last we saw each other, Manhood has swoln my chest, and taught my voice A hoarser note---Besides, they think me dead ; And what the mind believes impossible, The bodily sense is slow to recognise. Zul. 'Tis yours, sir, to command, mine to obey. Now to the cave beneath the vaulted rock, Where having shaped you to a Moorish chieftain, I'll seek our mariners; and in the dusk Transport whate'er we need to the small dell In the Alpujarras---there where Zagri lived. Alv. I know it well: it is the obscurest haunt Of all the mountains-- Let us away! [both stand listening. Voices at a distance ! Exeunt. |