Eudora :: :: University of Virginia Library

And now farewell! O haste my love to leave me!
And hide thy killing softness from my sight!
'Tis there I feel the anguish of my fate.

EUDORA.
No! no! thou dear supporter of my being,
I cannot, must not leave thee.

RAYMOND.
Spare thine eyes
This horrid scene of blood!

EUDORA.
'Tis not in absence
To save me from the sight—these wretched eyes
Will see thee ever—till they close in death
Still must they have thy mangled form before them.

OFFICER.
My lord you must prepare.

EUDORA.
Bind! bind these arms!
If he is guilty I am guilty too;
And beg to perish with him.

RAYMOND.
O! my love!
Collect thy noble fortitude! and raise
Thy drooping soul to better thoughts! remember
Thy virtue taught my mind a due submission
To Heaven's high will, and saved my hands from guilt:
Thou my angelic monitor prepared'st
My soul for future bliss, and O if ever
Departed beings may to earth repair,

Still as thy guardian will I hover round thee:
And here my latest breath shall beg of Heaven
To give thee peace, and heal thy wounded spirit.

EUDORA.
Pray not to Heaven to punish me with life
When thou art severed from me!

OFFICER.
Good my lord,
Excuse me! but fresh orders are arrived,
That claim my prompt obedience.

RAYMOND.
Friend, forgive me!
I will but fold her once more to my heart:
To quit this bosom is indeed to burst
My strings of life: The rest is but a form,
That will be briefly past—nor feared, nor felt.

EUDORA.
Judge of the world! desert not innocence!
Yet save him—yet preserve—

A loud Shout is heard,
AND A VOICE BEHIND THE SCENES EXCLAIMS
He shall not die,
The blood of Raymond shall not stain our city.

The Shouts are redoubled.

EUDORA.
Transporting sounds! ye just, ye generous people!
Ye will restore him yet to life and glory!

The tumultuous clamour encreases,
ANOTHER VOICE
BEHIND THE SCENE EXCLAIMS
Let Raymond die! 'tis Heaven demands his blood!
Perish the base assassin of his prince!