University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

SCENE, Angie in Canada.
SCENE I. Sakia and Okima.
Sak.
Speak on,
Thy Looks seem big with something that's important.

Okim.
Then briefly thus:
Beaufort, that jointly with your valiant Son,
Led forth his English, and our Iroquois,
To stop th' Incursions of the French and Hurons,
Is just from our Confederate Troops arriv'd.

Sak.
Alas! how fares my Ulamar?

Okim.
Before the Sun which now declines is sett,
You may expect to hear it from himself,
For Beaufort left him just prepar'd to follow.

Sak.
Now the great Mind be praised!
My Son has lost then, and the French are Victors.

Okim.
No, my Sakia,
The Ruler of the World is not so partial,
Nor are the Guardian Spirits so remiss,
Which hover with their golden Wings o'er Canada:
Your lovely Son, th' auspicious Ulamar,
No less the Darling is of Heav'n than ours.
A thousand French and Hurons pale and breathless,
Extended on yon Plain proclaim him Victor,
And in the bloody Bus'ness of the Day.
No single Arm dealt Fate so much as Ulamar's.

Sak.
Ah! wretched me! thou hast rowz'd all my Griefs.

Okim.
How, my Sabia?
Is your Son's Triumph then become your Grief?
His Death had been your Joy then?

Sak.
Ah no! thou know'st I dote upon my Ulamar,
And when the Graces of his Mind and Person,
With Reason's Eye severely I survey,
Reason severely judging yet assures me,
That I have cause for all the Mother's Fondness:
Yet know, my Okima,
His Death and Victory I fear'd alike.

Okim.
You utter Mysteries beyond my Reach.

Sak.
Thou know'st my Son, that with the generous Beaufort
Now leads the bloody Iroquois to Battel,
No Iroquois by Birth, no Native is of Angie.

Okim.
I know you both indeed by Birth are Hurons.

Sak.
Hurons we once were call'd, and once were thought
To be descended from no Vulgar Stock,
But now, alas! are sunk to wretched Slaves

Okim.
To Slaves, Sakia!
Your Son at least has other Sentiments.

Sak.
Howe'er alas, my Son may be deceiv'd,
I am a Slave, a miserable Slave;
Who far remov'd from my sweet Native Soil,
Far from the dearer Partner of my Heart,
Have for twelve tedious Years been now confin'd
To drag the galling Yoke of loathsome Life,
In this accursed Place:
A Burthen which I never could support,
But that I had some glimpse of Hope remaining;
That cruel Fortune might at length relent,
And might at length restore me with my Ulamar,
To the dear Partner of my faithful Heart:
Those Hopes have lately been reviv'd and animated
By the prophetick Visions of the Night,
And Expectation of this fatal Action;
But this Relation has o'erthrown them all:
My Son's mistaken Valour has undone us,
And thou, O Miramont, art lost for ever!

Okim.
Forget your Hurons and become an Angian.

Sak.
O may the whole accursed Race by Fate
Be rooted ev'n from Human Memory!
Perish their very Names too with their Persons,
Excepting thine, for thou art wondrous good.

Okim.
Sakia, you forget,
To curse your Benefactors thus is impious.

Sak.
To curse our mortal Enemies is just.

Okim.
The Angians are your Friends and your Defenders.

Sak.
My Country's mortal Enemies are mine.

Okim.
Iroquian Angie is your Country now.

Sak.
My Prison never can be call'd my Country.

Okim.
The Angians gave you Liberty at first;
The Hour that made you Captives, saw you free.

Sak.
Why am I then with my unhappy Son
Detain'd e'er since in this detested Clime,
Enjoying nothing but the Name of Liberty,
Which hourly brings the thing to my Remembrance,
And makes the Yoke of Slav'ry wring me more?
Know that I'm not deluded by a Word,
And ev'n this Shadow of the Angians Favour
Is due to the Request of generous Beaufort;
For he the fatal Expedition led,
To which I owe this long Captivity,
To which I owe a twelve Years mortal Woe
Confin'd by barbarous Iroquois to Angie;
Which may just Heav'n by sharpest Plagues revenge!

Okim.
You curse the Victors, Heav'n has curst the vanquish'd.

Sak.
Now they are Conquerors I'll hate them more.

Okim.
Think that our Conquest to your Son we owe,
Then curse us if you can.

Sak.
Therefore the barbarous Iroquois I curse.

Okim.
Upon your Son's account you ought to bless us,
Think on our Bounties heap'd upon his Head.

Sak.
Think on the Trophies by his Valour won,
With which tenfold your Bounty he repays.

Okim.
'Tis to our Favour that he owes his Glory,
Which, tho' he scarce has reach'd his twentieth Year,
Surpasses that of all our ancient Warriours.

Sak.
'Tis by his Glory you exist, but he
To Fortune and himself his Glory owes,
And the Instructions of the generous Beaufort.

Okim.
Leading our Forces he acquir'd his Fame.

Sak.
Yes, against the Hurons,
Our Obligations there indeed are great,
For causing him to turn his fatal Sword
Upon the bleeding Bowels of his Country,
And its Confederate Friends the Warlike French;
Who for strong Reasons ought to be most dear to him.

Okim.
Poorly your partial Mind affects the French,
While he detests the false perfidious Race,
And threatens to extirpate all those gay,
But rank and filthy Weeds from Canada;
Which lately crept usurping thro' the Corn,
T'oppress the genuine and the noble Seed.

Sak.
Tho know'st him not, he's ignorant of himself,
And both are blind alike; but one Day Fate
Will dissipate th' impenetrable Cloud
That now obscures his Sight, and then too late
His fond and fatal Error he'll detest.

Okim.
But why!
For he who does his Duty, first must know it.

Sak.
But this he knows at present that the French
Are strictly to his Countrymen ally'd,

Okim.
He owns no Country but Iroquian Angie,
Who to the French must prove eternal Foes.

Sak.
Time will instruct him better.

Okim.
Yes, for our Angie will become to morrow
His Country by a stricter dearer tie.

Sak.
What meanest thou?

Okim.
A Tie that will for ever fix him ours.

Sak.
Explain thy self.

Okim.
To morrow's Sun, will see that Beauty his,
For whom the loveliest of our Indian Swains
Have sigh'd and sigh'd in vain.

Sak.
Thou mean'st the blooming Daughter of Zephario,
Head of th' Iroquian Tribes.

Okim.
Who can be meant but blest Irene, whom
Divided Canada consents to adore,
And they who come from distant Climes admire?
The Adoration of two Worlds, the English,
To whom uncommon Beauty is familiar,
Astonish'd gaze at her amazing Form,
As at a Wonder never seen before.

Sak.
Yes, the brave Beaufort too admires Irene,
And to her lays an equal Claim with Ulamar;
And for that Reason thou art wrong inform'd,
For Angie dares not disoblige the English.

Okim.
But when the rival Friends went out to Battel,
Thus said the wise Zephario,
Ye matchless Friends, thou Beaufort and thou Ulamar,
Ye great and fair Supports of Liberty,
And Canada against a faithless Race,
Who have perfidiously surpriz'd our Angians,
And in full Peace with Sword and Fire attack'd them;
Lead forth our Arms against the perjur'd Foe,
And know that he who for the common Cause,
Against that Foe performs the noblest Deeds,
At his return shall call Irene his.
The Father said, the charming Daughter blush'd,
And to the just Decree the Friends consented.

Sak.
My Ulamar is not return'd from fight,
How can that Diff'rence be determin'd then?

Okim.
By the Relation of impartial Beaufort,
By which he owns that your unequall'd Son,
By his wise Conduct and his brave Example,
Sav'd both his English and our Iroquois.

Sak.
That was the Modesty of generous Beaufort,
But when he own'd this was Irene present?

Okim.
Yes, and in spight of all her shy Demureness,
Joy lighten'd on a sudden from her Eyes,
Which strugling she supprest and blushing frown'd,
Or I'm mistaken, or she loves your Ulamar.

Sak.
Confusion!

Okim.
Come, she is worthy of the first of Men.

Sak.
'Tis true, so fair a Creature I ne'er saw.
Ev'n I, whom pow'rful Reasons force to hate her,
Ev'n I with Pleasure gaze upon her Face,
And viewing grow insensibly her Friend.
But may she perish e'er she weds my Ulamar,
Nay, may they perish both.

Okim.
To both you're cruel.

Sak.
No, for if once their Hands are join'd he's lost,
To me and to the best of Fathers lost,
Who lov'd him as the Darling of his Soul;
And to restore him to whose tender Arms,
I have endur'd to live thus long a Slave.

Okim.
But see, the noble Beaufort comes to attend you.