Unto this infidel!-Rise, rise, my mother! This sight doth shame our house! ABDULLAH. Thou daring boy! They that in arms have taught thy father's land How chains are worn, shall school that haughty mien Unto another language. ELMINA. Peace, my son! Have pity on my heart!—Oh, pardon, Chief! Are there no lives through which the shafts of Heaven Is it for those, whose frail mortality Must one day strive alone with God and death, To you too, aye, and haply with your hosts, And your strong armour on, shall come that stroke Which the lance wards not !-Where shall your high heart Find refuge then, if in the day of might Woe hath lain prostrate, bleeding at your feet, ABDULLAH. These are vain words. ELMINA. Have you no children ?-fear you not to bring The lightning on their heads?-In your own land To greet your homeward step?--You have not yet -For is not woman's, in all climes, the same?— That you should scorn my prayer!-Oh Heaven! his eye Doth wear no mercy! ABDULLAH. Then it mocks you not. I have swept o'er the mountains of your land, Leaving my traces, as the visitings Of storms, upon them!-Shall I now be stay'd! In this, my course, to quench your children's lives, ELMINA. Are there such hearts Amongst thy works, oh God? ABDULLAH. Kneel not to me. Kneel to your lord! on his resolves doth hang Speak not of noble men!-he bears a soul ALPHONSO (with exultation). He could not fail! I knew 'twas thus ! ELMINA. There is no mercy, none, On this cold earth!-To strive with such a world, Hearts should be void of love!-We will go hence, My children! we are summon'd. Lay your heads, In their young radiant beauty, once again To rest upon this bosom. He that dwells Beyond the clouds which press us darkly round, We three will stand together! Moslem! now Let the stroke fall at once! ABDULLAH. "Tis thine own will. These might e'en yet be spared. ELMINA. Thou wilt not spare! And he beneath whose eye their childhood grew, ABDULLAH. Hath the blast Of sudden trumpets ne'er at dead of night, When the land's watchers fear'd no hostile step, Stedfast as thine? ELMINA. There's meaning in thine eye, More than thy words. ABDULLAH (pointing to the city). Look to yon towers and walls! Think you no hearts within their limits pine, To burst the feeble links which bind them still ELMINA. Thou hast said too well. But what of this? ABDULLAH. Then there are those, to whom The Prophet's armies not as foes would pass Thou treacherous Moor! ELMINA. Let me not thus be tried Beyond all strength, oh Heaven! ABDULLAH. Now, 'tis for thee, Thou Christian mother! on thy sons to pass ALPHONSO. Mother! thou tremblest! ABDULLAH. Hath thy heart resolved? |