University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

Tancred, Sigismunda.
Tancred.
And are these long long Hours of Torture past?
My Life! my Sigismunda!

[Throwing himself at her Feet.
Sigismunda.
Rise, my Lord.
To see my Sovereign thus no more becomes me.

Tancred.
[Rising.

Sigismunda.
How! when I heard myself your full Consent
To the late King's so just and prudent Will?
Heard it before you read, in solemn Senate?
When I beheld you give your Royal Hand
To Her, whose Birth and Dignity, of Right,
Demands that high Alliance? Yes, my Lord,
You have done well. The Man, whom Heaven appoints
To govern others, should himself first learn
To bend his Passions to the Sway of Reason.
In all you have done well, but when you bid
My humbled Hopes look up to you again,
And sooth'd with wanton Cruelty my Weakness—
That too was well—My Vanity deserv'd
The sharp Rebuke, whose fond Extravagance
Could ever dream to balance your Repose,
Your Glory and the Welfare of a People.

Tancred.
Chide on, chide on. Thy soft Reproaches now,
Instead of wounding, only soothe my Fondness.
No, no, Thou charming Consort of my Soul!
I never lov'd Thee with such faithful Ardor,
As in that cruel miserable Moment
You thought me false; when even my Honour stoop'd
To wear for Thee a baffled Face of Baseness.
It was thy barbarous Father, Sigismunda,
Who caught me in the Toil. He turn'd that Paper,
Meant for th' assuring Bond of Nuptial Love,
To ruin it for ever; he, he wrote
That forg'd Consent, you heard, beneath my Name,
Nay dar'd before my outrag'd Throne to read it!
Had he not been thy Father—Ha! my Love!
You tremble, you grow pale.

Sigismunda.
Oh leave me, Tancred!

Tancred.
No!—Leave thee?—Never! never! till you set
My Heart at peace, till these dear Lips again
Pronounce Thee mine! Without Thee I renounce
My self, my Friends, the World—Here on this Hand—

Sigismunda.
My Lord, forget that Hand, which never now
Can be to thine united—

Tancred.
Sigismunda!
What dost Thou mean? Thy Words, thy Look, thy Manner,
Seem to conceal some horrid Secret—Heavens!—
No—That was wild—Distraction fires that Thought!

Sigismunda.
Enquire no more—I never can be thine.

Tancred.
What, who shall interpose? who dares attempt
To brave the Fury of an injur'd King?
Who, ere he sees Thee ravish'd from his Hopes,
Will wrap all blazing Sicily in Flames—

Sigismunda.
In vain your Power, my Lord—This fatal Error,
Join'd to my Father's unrelenting Will,
Has plac'd an everlasting Bar betwixt Us—
I am—Earl Osmond's—Wife.

Tancred.
Earl Osmond's Wife!—
[After a long Pause, during which they look at one another with the highest Agitation and most tender Distress.
Heavens! did I hear thee right? what! marry'd? marry'd!
Lost to thy faithful Tancred! lost for ever!
Couldst thou then doom me to such matchless Woe,
Without so much as hearing me?—Distraction!—
Alas! what hast thou done? Ah Sigismunda!
Thy rash Credulity has done a Deed,
Which of two happiest Lovers—that e'er felt
The blissful Power, has made two finish'd Wretches!
But—Madness!—Sure, Thou knowst it cannot be!
This Hand is mine! a thousand thousand Vows—