Part 14 (1/2)

_Alon._ Am I awake?

_Zan._ For ever.

Thy wife is guiltless--that's one transport to me; And I, I let thee know it--that's another.

I urg'd don Carlos to resign his mistress, I forg'd the letter, I dispos'd the picture; I hated, I despis'd, and I destroy!

_Alon._ Oh! [_swoons._

_Zan._ Why, this is well--why, this is blow for blow!

Where are you? crown me, shadow me with laurels, Ye spirits which delight in just revenge!

Let Europe and her pallid sons go weep; Let Afric and her hundred thrones rejoice: Oh, my dear countrymen, look down and see How I bestride your prostrate conqueror!

I tread on haughty Spain, and all her kings.

But this is mercy, this is my indulgence; 'Tis peace, 'tis refuge from my indignation.

I must awake him into horrors. Hoa!

Alonzo, hoa! the Moor is at the gate!

Awake, invincible, omnipotent!

Thou who dost all subdue!

_Alon._ Inhuman slave!

_Zan._ Fall'n Christian, thou mistak'st my character.

Look on me. Who am I? I know, thou say'st The Moor, a slave, an abject, beaten slave: (Eternal woes to him that made me so!) But look again. Has six years' cruel bondage Extinguish'd majesty so far, that nought s.h.i.+nes here to give an awe of one above thee?

When the great Moorish king, Abdallah, fell, Fell by thy hand accurs'd, I fought fast by him, His son, though, through his fondness, in disguise, Less to expose me to th' ambitious foe.-- Ha! does it wake thee?--O'er my father's corse I stood astride till I had clove thy crest; And then was made the captive of a squadron, And sunk into thy servant--But, oh! what, What were my wages? Hear not heaven, nor earth!

My wages were a blow! by heaven, a blow!

And from a mortal hand!

_Alon._ Oh, villain, villain!

_Zan._ All strife is vain. [_showing a dagger._

_Alon._ Is thus my love return'd?

Is this my recompense? Make friends of tigers!

Lay not your young, oh, mothers, on the breast, For fear they turn to serpents as they lie, And pay you for their nourishment with death!-- Carlos is dead, and Leonora dying!

Both innocent, both murder'd, both by me.

_Zan._ Must I despise thee too, as well as hate thee?

Complain of grief, complain thou art a man.-- Priam from fortune's lofty summit fell; Great Alexander 'midst his conquests mourn'd; Heroes and demi-G.o.ds have known their sorrows; Caesars have wept; and I have had--my blow: But, 'tis reveng'd, and now my work is done.

Yet, ere I fall, be it one part of vengeance To force thee to confess that I am just.-- Thou seest a prince, whose father thou hast slain, Whose native country thou hast laid in blood, Whose sacred person (oh!) thou hast profan'd, Whose reign extinguish'd--what was left to me, So highly born? No kingdom, but revenge; No treasure, but thy tortures and thy groans.

If men should ask who brought thee to thy end, Tell them, the Moor, and they will not despise thee.

If cold white mortals censure this great deed, Warn them, they judge not of superior beings, Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue. Fare thee well-- Now, fully satisfied, I should take leave: But one thing grieves me, since thy death is near, I leave thee my example how to die.

_As he is going to stab himself, Alonzo rushes upon him to prevent him.

In the mean time, enter Don Alvarez, attended. They disarm and seize Zanga, Alonzo puts the dagger in his bosom._

_Alon._ No, monster, thou shalt not escape by death.

Oh, father!