 | Love After Death |  |
136
SCENE VI.
—BEFORE THE WALLS OF BERJA.Enter DOÑA ISABEL (LIDORA), and Moorish soldiers on the walls.
LIDORA.
With this white flag make a signal
To the approaching Christian camp.
Enter DON ALVARO TUZANÍ.
TUZANÍ.
Between angry pikes and halberds
Have I forced my way, until
I have reached the foot of the mountain.
A voice
within.
Ere he gets within the outworks
Strike him with a musket-ball.
Enter soldiers pursuing him.
TUZANÍ.
You are far too few; surround me!
A SOLDIER.
To the entrenchment!
LIDORA.
Tuzaní,
My lord, my brother, stay!
TUZANÍ.
Lidora,
All these soldiers, arm'd and breathless,
Follow me.
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Thou need'st not fear them.
DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA,
within.
Tree by tree, and bough by bough,
Waste the country till you find him.
Enter DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA, Soldiers, and ALCUZCUZ.
LIDORA.
Generous Don John of Austria,
Son of that renowned eagle
Who, the sun sees face to face—
For this mountain so rebellious—
So opposed to your desire—
Now a woman, if thou'lt hear her,
Comes a suppliant to thy feet.
I am Doña Isabel
Tuzaní, by force detained here
Like a Moor in outward seeming
But a Catholic in my heart;—
Widow of Abenhumeya—
Whose unhappy death has crimsoned
By their arms his regal crown—
For the Moors upon the tidings
Of the amnesty you offered,
Wished to gain it, (since the crowd,
Ever fickle and inconstant—
What they wish for most to-day
Will abandon on the morrow)—
Seeing that Abenhumeya
Wished to shame their cowardice,
His own body-guard one day
Entering the royal chamber,
Even where the throne was placed,
And the door being curtained over,
They addressed the monarch, saying,—
138
I to yield! he said in answer,
And his sword would then have drawn,
But a soldier struck him swiftly
On the head with a partisan—
That illustrious head, whose fortunes
Seemed as if co-equal emblems
Both of honour and dishonour:—
He fell dead, and with him fell
All those hopes that hung suspended
On his life: the doubtful issue
Making Spain to tremble more
At the long-impending evil
Than if it occurred;—the people
All took up the cry and shouted,
Live the sacred Austrian name!—
If, my lord, to see the Moorish
Diadem of fair Granada
Fallen from the royal forehead
Of the brave Abenhumeya
Merits favour, let it be
That you grant free grace and pardon
To the noble Tuzaní;—
At thy gracious feet, thus kneeling
I feel prouder as thy servant
Than when here I reigned a queen.
DON JOHN.
Ah! too small a boon you ask me;
Beauteous Isabel, arise!—
Live, brave Tuzaní: and ever
Let thy story—the most strange
Deed that love has ever acted
In the world's admiring sight—
Let it ever live engraven
Deep in memory's lasting bronze.
TUZANÍ.
I kiss thy feet.
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Am I too pardon'd?
DON JOHN.
Yes.
TUZANÍ.
And thus is ended now
“Love that liveth after Death”
And the Siege of the Alpujarra.
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