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Thou kind and merciful!-My soul is faint-
Worn with long strife!-Is there aught else to do,
Or suffer, ere we die !-Oh God! my sons!
-I have betray'd them!—All their innocent blood
Is on my soul !

XIMENA.

How shall I comfort thee?

-Oh! hark! what sounds come deepening on the wind, So full of solemn hope!

(A procession of Nuns passes across the Scene, bearing relics, and chanting.)

CHANT.

A sword is on the land!

He that bears down young tree and glorious flower,
Death is gone forth, he walks the wind in power!

-Where is the warrior's hand?

Our steps are in the shadows of the

grave,

Hear us, we perish! Father, hear, and save!

If, in the days of song,

The days of gladness, we have call'd on thee,
When mirthful voices rang from sea to sea,
And joyous hearts were strong;

Now, that alike the feeble and the brave

Must cry,

"We perish!"-Father! hear, and save!

The days of song are fled!

The winds come loaded, wafting dirge-notes by,
But they that linger soon unmourn'd must die;
-The dead weep not the dead!

-Wilt thou forsake us 'midst the stormy wave?
We sink, we perish!-Father, hear, and save!

Helmet and lance are dust!

Is not the strong man wither'd from our eye?
The arm struck down that held our banners high?
-Thine is our spirit's trust!

Look through the gathering shadows of the grave!
Do we not perish ?-Father, hear, and save!

HERNANDEZ enters.

ELMINA.

Why comest thou, man of vengeance?-What have I To do with thee?—Am I not bow'd enough?

Thou art no mourner's comforter!

HERNANDEZ.

Thy lord

Hath sent me unto thee. Till this day's task
Be closed, thou daughter of the feeble heart!
He bids thee seek him not, but lay thy woes
Before Heaven's altar, and in penitence

Make thy soul's peace with God.

ELMINA.

Till this day's task

Be closed-there is strange triumph in thine eyes

Is it that I have fallen from that high place
Whereon I stood in fame?-But I can feel

A wild and bitter pride in thus being past

The power of thy dark glance !-My spirit now
Is wound about by one sole mighty grief;

Thy scorn hath lost its sting.-Thou mayst reproach

HERNANDEZ.

I come not to reproach thee. Heaven doth work

By many agencies; and in its hour

There is no insect which the summer breeze

From the green leaf shakes trembling, but may serve Its deep unsearchable purposes, as well

As the great ocean, or th' eternal fires,

Pent in earth's caves!-Thou hast but speeded that,

Which, in th' infatuate blindness of thy heart,
Thou wouldst have trampled o'er all holy ties,
But to avert one day!

ELMINA.

My senses fail

Thou saidst-speak yet again !—I could not catch

The meaning of thy words.

HERNANDEZ.

E'en now thy lord

Hath sent our foes defiance. On the walls

He stands in conference with the boastful Moor,

And awful strength is with him. Through the blood
Which this day must be pour'd in sacrifice
Shall Spain be free. On all her olive-hills
Shall men set up the battle-sign of fire,

And round its blaze, at midnight, keep the sense
Of vengeance wakeful in each other's hearts

E'en with thy children's tale!

XIMENA.

Peace, father! peace!

Behold she sinks !-the storm hath done its work

Upon the broken reed.

Oh! lend thine aid

To bear her hence.

[They lead her away.

Scene-A street in Valencia. Several Groups of Citizens and Soldiers, many of them lying on the Steps of Arms scattered on the Ground around

a Church.

them.

AN OLD CITIZEN.

The air is sultry, as with thunder-clouds.

I left my desolate home, that I might breathe
More freely in heaven's face, but my heart feels
With this hot gloom o'erburthen'd. I have now
No sons to tend me. Which of you, kind friends,
Will bring the old man water from the fount,
To moisten his parch'd lip?

SECOND CITIZEN.

[A citizen goes out.

This wasting siege,

Good Father Lopez, hath gone hard with you! "Tis sad to hear no voices through the house, Once peopled with fair sons!

THIRD CITIZEN.

Why, better thus,

Than to be haunted with their famish'd cries,

E'en in your very dreams!

OLD CITIZEN.

Heaven's will be done!

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