University of Virginia Library

SCENE VI.

Rodolpho, from the Senate.
Rodolpho.
My honest Friends,
You may retire.
[Officers go out.
A Storm is in the Wind.
This Will perplexes all. No, Tancred never
Can stoop to these Conditions, which at once
Attack his Rights, his Honour, and his Love.
Those wise old Men, those plodding grave State-Pedants,
Forget the Course of Youth; their crooked Prudence,
To Baseness verging still, forgets to take
Into their fine-spun Schemes the generous Heart,
That thro' the Cobweb System bursting lays
Their Labours waste—So will this Business prove,
Or I mistake the King—Back from the Pomp
He seem'd at first to shrink; and round his Brow
I mark'd a gathering Cloud, when by his Side,
As if design'd to share the public Homage,
He saw the Tyrant's Daughter. But confess'd,
At least to me, the doubling Tempest frown'd,
And shook his swelling Bosom, when he heard
Th' unjust the base Conditions of the Will.
Uncertain tost, in cruel Agitation,
He oft, methought, address'd himself to speak
And interrupt Siffredi; who appear'd,
With conscious haste, to dread that Interruption,
And hurry'd on—But hark! I hear a Noise,
As if th' Assembly rose?—Ha! Sigismunda,
Oppress'd with Grief and wrapt in pensive Sorrow,
Passes along—

[Sigismunda and Attendants pass thro' the Back Scene. Laura advances.