 | Elvira |  |
SCENE VI.
The QUEEN, ELVIRA.QUEEN.
Perfidious! see,
Behold the curs'd effects—
37
O Madam, spare
This fruitless insult. Can Elvira dread
Your impotence of anger, while her fears
Embrace alike Alonzo and his son?
My bosom bleeds for both! But Oh the prince!
Whate'er his fate may be, the same despair
Abides this tortur'd heart—since I must weep
His life, or virtue, lost!
QUEEN.
And dares thy pride
Affect this glorious sorrow, when 'tis you,
You only who have plung'd him into guilt?
But yet—and let it as the knell of death
Sound in thine ear—alone he shall not fall!
The thunder o'er thy head—think of it—think
Thou art my prisoner still!
ELVIRA.
I think withall,
The death you threaten is but my enlargement
From life's low dungeon, from its galling chains,
To boundless freedom and to bliss supreme,
Reserv'd by gracious heaven for every wretch
Who suffers here unjustly!
Trumpets sound again.
| Elvira | |