In the high deeds and sufferings of the soul, In the good cause, with solemn joy !—How long? And generous action, bidding its bright waves To chain them in from wandering, hath assign'd ELMINA. Oh there are times, When all that hopeless courage can achieve But sheds a mournful beauty o'er the fate Of those who die in vain. HERNANDEZ. Who dies in vain Upon his country's war-fields, and within Thus pour'd for faith and freedom, hath a tone ELMINA. Then it must be !—And ye will make those lives, HERNANDEZ. The mantle of that day May wrap the fate of Spain! ELMINA. What led me here? Why did I turn to thee in my despair? Love hath no ties upon thee; what had I To hope from thee, thou lone and childless man! Go to thy silent home!—there no young voice Forth at the sound of thine !-What knows thy heart? HERNANDEZ. Woman! how dar'st thou taunt me with my woes? It shall be well!-Why tak'st thou thought for them? Unto its dregs, and making night thy time Of care yet more intense, and casting health, Thou minglest for thyself?-Why, what hath earth That changed not, though to change be this world's law? Will they not leave thee?-far from thee seek room On life's wide ocean?-Give the bounding steed, Or the wing'd bark to youth, that his free course In thy forsaken home, for the bright world Lies all before him, and be sure he wastes ELMINA. Not so it is not so! Thou dost but torture me! My sons are kind, And brave, and gentle. HERNANDEZ. Others too have worn The semblance of all good. Nay, stay thee yet; Which far outweigh thine own. ELMINA. It may not be ! Whose grief is like a mother's for her sons? HERNANDEZ. My son lay stretch'd upon his battle-bier, And there were hands wrung o'er him, which had caught Their hue from his young blood! ELMINA. What tale is this! HERNANDEZ. Read you no records in this mien, of things They grave so deep !—I have not always been Their blood! my children's blood!-Thou speak'st as 'twere Of casting down a wine-cup, in the mirth And wantonness of feasting!—My fair boys! -Man! hast thou been a father? |