So may your arms success in battle find;
So may the mistress of your vows be kind,
If you have any; or, if you have none,
So may your liberty be still your own!
Almanz. Yes, I will turn my face, but not my

mind:
You bane and soft destruction of mankind,
What would you have with me?
Almah. I beg the grace

[Unveiling,
You would lay by those terrors of your face.
Till calmness to your eyes you first restore,
I am afraid, and I can beg no more.
Almanz. [Lookingly firedly on her.] We

fierce visage shall not murder you. Speak quickly, woman; I have much to do. Almah. Where should I find the heart to speak

one word? Your voice, sir, is as killing as your sword. As you have left the lightning of your eye, So would you please to lay your thunder by. Almanz. I'm pleased and pained, since first her

eyes I saw, As I were stung with some tarantula. Arms, and the dusty field, I less admire, And soften strangely in some new desire; Honour burns in me not so fiercely bright, But pale as fires when mastered by the light: Even while I speak and look, I change yet more, And now am nothing that I was before. I'm numbed, and fixed, and scarce my eye-balls

move: I fear it is the lethargy of love! 'Tis he; I feel him now in every part: Like a new lord he vaunts about my heart; Surveys, in state, each corner of my breast, While poor fierce I, that was, am dispossessed

I'm bound; but I will rouse my rage again;
And, though no hope of liberty remain,
I'll fright my keeper when I shake my chain.
You are-

[Angrily.
Almah. I know I am your captive, sir.
Almanz. You are—You shall — And I can scarce

forbearAlmah. Alas!

Almanz. 'Tis all in vain ; it will not do: Aside.
I cannot now a seeming anger show:
My tongue against my heart no aid affords;
For love still rises up, and choaks my words.

Almah. In half this time a tempest would be still.
Almanz. 'Tis you have raised that tempest in my

will.
I wonnot love you; give me back my heart; i
But give it, as you had it, fierce and brave
It was not made to be a woman's slave,
But, lion-like, has been in desarts bred,
And, used to range, will ne'er be tamely led.
Restore its freedom to my fettered will,
And then I shall have power to use you ill.

Almah. My sad condition may your pity move; But look not on me with the eyes of love :I must be brief, though I have much to say. Almanz. No, speak; for I can hear you now all

day.
Her sueing sooths me with a secret pride: [Softly.
A suppliant beauty cannot be denied : [å side.
Even while I frown, her charms the furrows seize;
And I'm corrupted with the power to please.
Almah. Though in your worth no cause of fear I

see,
I fear the insolence of victory;
As you are noble, sir, protect me then
From the rude outrage of insulting men,

Almanz. Who dares touch her I love? I'm all

o'er love: Nay, I am love ; love shot, and shot so fast, He shot himself into my breast at last. Almah. You see before you her, who should be

queen, Since she is promised to Boabdelin. Almanz. Are you beloved by him? O wretched

fate,
First that I love at all; then, loved too late!
Yet, I must love!

Almah. Alas, it is in vain;
Fate for each other did not us ordain.
The chances of this day too clearly show
That heaven took care that it should not be so.

Almanz. Would heaven had quite forgot me this
: one day!
But fate's yet hot-
I'll make it take a bent another way.

[He walks swiftly and discomposedly, studying. I bring a claim which does his right remove; You're his by promise, but you're mine by love. 'Tis all but ceremony which is past; The knots to tie which is to make you fast. Fate gave not to Boabdelin that power; He wooed you but as my ambassador.

Almah. Our souls are tied by holy vows above. Almanz. He signed but his: but I will seal my

love. I love you better, with more zeal than he.

Almah. This day
I gave my faith to him, he his to me.
Almanz. Good heaven, thy book of fate before

me lay,
But to tear out the journal of this day :
Or, if the order of the world below
Will not the gap of one whole day allow,

Give me that minute when she made her vow ! That minute, ev’n the happy from their bliss might

give; And those, who live in grief, a shorter time would

live. So small a link, if broke, the eternal chain Would, like divided waters, join again.It wonnot be; the fugitive is gone, Prest by the crowd of following minutes on: That precious moment's out of nature fled, And in the heap of common rubbish laid, Of things that once have been, and are decayed. Almah. Your passion, like a fright, suspends my

pain; It meets, o'erpowers, and beats mine back again: But as, when tides against the current flow, The native stream runs its own course below, So, though your griefs possess the upper part, My own have deeper channels in my heart. Almanz. Forgive that fury which my soul does

move; 'Tis the essay of an untaught first love: Yet rude, unfashioned truth it does express; 'Tis love just peeping in a hasty dress. Retire, fair creature, to your needful rest; There's something noble labouring in my breast : This raging fire, which through the mass does move, Shall purge my dross, and shall refine my love.

[Exeunt ALMAHIDE and ESPERANZA. She goes, and I like my own ghost appear; It is not living when she is not here.

To him Abdalla as King, attended. Abdal. My first acknowledgments to heaven are

due; My next, Almanzor, let me pay to you.

Almans. A poor surprise, and on a naked foe,
Whatever you confess, is all you owe;
And I no merit own, or understand
That fortune did you justice by my hand :
Yet, if you will that little service pay
With a great favour, I can shew the way.

Abdal. I have a favour to demand of you;
That is, to take the thing for which you sue.
Almanz.: Ther, briefly, thus: when I the Albay-

zyn won,
I found the beauteous Almahide alone,
Whose sad condition did my pity move;
And that compassion did produce my love.

Abdal. This needs no suit; in justice, I declare, She is your captive by the right of war.

Almanz. She is no captive then; I set her free; And, rather than I will her jailor be, I'll nobly lose her in her liberty.

Abdal. Your generosity I much approve;
But your excess of that shows want of love.
Almanz. No, 'tis the excess of love which inounts

so high,
That, seen far off, it lessens to the eye.
Had I not loved her, and had set her free,
That, sir, had been my generosity;
But 'tis exalted passion, when I show
I dare be wretched, not to make her so:
And, while another passion fills her breast,
I'll be all wretched rather than half blest.

Abdal. May your heroic act so prosperous be,
That Almahide may sigh you set her free.

Enter ZULEMA. Zul. Of five tall towers which fortify this town, All but the Alhambra your dominion own: Now, therefore, boldly I confess a flame, Which is excused in Almahide's name.