University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

Enter Ximenes, and Alonzo.
Ximenes.
Fear not, Alonzo; I shall bear the journey.
You'll bid the servants wait, and, then, return.

Zaigri,
What! is my tutelary genius here!

[Alonzo goes, and returns. Torquemada is greatly agitated, and falls back.
Ximenes.
My worthy, brave, and greatly injured Zaigri!
How strange, and how degrading, is our fate!
I little thought, that you, and good Alonzo,
Should, with myself, e'er meet in Pandæmonium;
And even before our death!
[To Torquemada.
Come forth, thou vultur!
Thou hast, at length, smelt out the flower of manhood;
Torne from my arms my bosom friend!—my friend!
The generous, equal friend of human kind!
The glory of our species!—Thou hast rouzed
A dauntless lion, shamefully asleep,
Too long; but now he growls for ample vengeance;
Lashes his sides, and quickly will devour thee!

Torquemada.
Is this the man, who solemnly engaged,
And to his dying queen, that he'd protect me;
Maintain the dignity, and execution
Of my severe, but salutary office?

Ximenes.
Truth is, thou know'st, the idol of my heart!
And thou must likewise know, with loyal worship,
How I adore the memory of my queen!
I gave to Isabella, on her death-bed,
A promise, in thy favour, too restrictive;
To which I've payed a doating veneration.
I now retract that promise; I annull it;
And with the bright, celestial sword of justice,
I cut the superstitious gordian knot.
Truth is but sacred, for it's glorious ends;
And so is every virtue. Sparing thee,
I give myself the lye; I tell the world,
In conduct, that thy horrid deeds are right;
I contradict the Authour of all nature!
Let me expunge my crime of dire omission.—
—How shall I punish thee!—I'll give thee back
Thyself;—the sentence which thou hast pronounced
On hapless men;—I'll make a bonfire of thee;
It will give light, and triumph, to all Spain!

Zaigri.
If ever, Ximenes, I found thy favour,
Wilt thou permit me, humbly to remind thee,
That souls, like thine, armed with decisive power,
To high authority, howe'er abused,
When fallen, and sunk, have still inclined to mercy?

Alonzo.
And wilt thou, too, forgive thy faithful servant,
If he presumes to add his wish humane,
That Zaigri, now, may have his usual interest
In thy great mind!

Ximenes.
I love you, for your weakness,
My generous friends! It flows from a fine source.
But I'm even deaf to Zaigri, and to you;
For I've, now, fixed my justice on a rock;
And she's impregnable.—No, Torquemada;
Thy heart, sheathed with impenetrable steel,
Mine has not force enough to emulate.
I never shall inflict a painful death.
I'll hang thee—on a statute; 'twas enacted,
In the first year of the Creator's reign
O'er his own world; when, on their golden lyres,
The minstrelsy above tuned dulcet notes,
In honour of this nether globe, replete
With fair, and with diversified existence;
And sung that all was good!—The statute says,
That every tyrant should, in every nation,
Be hunted down.—Prime minister of Satan!
Thou hast burned men, because they were too honest
Even life to purchase with hypocrisy!
Before the gates of this infernal dome,
I'll have a gallows planted, and as high
As Haman's; that the observing world may know,
That, in some cases, though I seem neglectful,
Sooner, or later, I still raise the man,
According to his merits; and that priests,
A subtle, cringing, yet, aspiring race;
Hell in their hearts; the gospel on their tongues,
May dread too high promotion!

Torquemada.
Ximenes,
Thou ever hast inclined to mild decision;
Then, on my knees, let me implore thy mercy!

Ximenes.
Thou hast deserved my most alarming terrours.
Know, that I would not take the guiltiest life,
Without procedure of fair jurisprudence.
Thy office gives thee an unbounded range;
And should'st thou, still, supinely be allowed
To prowl, at pleasure, thou might'st kill some Zaigri.
Then hear my ultimate, decisive sentence;
And by the God of equity, and mercy,
It shall be executed. Torquemada,
You shall be sent, well-guarded, to Madrid;
To drag existence, there, in close confinement,
During the sad remainder of your days;
Far from all friends, all social intercourse;
Your sole companions, in an old state-prison,
It's death-like silence; it's tremendous gloom.
Waste not an hour of your perpetual durance;
But strive, by fervent prayer, severest penance,
To make atonement for a barbarous life.

Torquemada,
on his Knees.
Yet let me supplicate thy lenity!

Ximenes.
I will not hear a word; for I'm humane!
Guards, bear your prisoner off.

Torquemada.
Oh! I've been wrong!
And rigour merits rigour!
[Exit Torquemada.

Ximenes.
—Now, my Zaigri;
If yet awhile I live, I'll give my orders,
That the dark shades, the haviour of this place,
Shall have a smiling metamorphosis.
I've banished, with the talisman of justice,
The Necromancer, that, for years, hath ruled it.
The sable genii, here, from Pluto's empire,
Too long have wreathed their melancholy cypress.
But, rather, by my more indulgent magick,
It shall display the fane of Cytherea.
Not that I mean, with unbecoming licence,
To give a sanction to illicit love;
But that our future Zaigris, Leonoras,
Shall here prepare their hymeneal wreaths,
Wreaths of perpetual bloom, perpetual fragrance,
And strew the floor with roses.—Fare thou well,
My friend! my feelings tell me, that to die,
Atchieving good, softens the king of terrours!
I'll, at Granada, try to find some rest;
For flagging nature asks it!—Come, Alonzo!
My aid, in life; in death, my consolation!
—Zaigri, this heart is not yet cold; it breathes
An ardent wish for thee!

Zaigri.
The consciousness
That I possess thy friendship, will inspire me
With new ambition to deserve it more.
Farewell.

[Ximenes retires.
Zaigri,
alone.
I have thy wish in strong remembrance!
But I should like to act from full conviction,
When moved by matters of eternal moment.
And when I view thee, with infirmities
Pressed down to earth, my sympathetick heart
Sinks, too, beneath a load of gratitude;
Nor can presume, on themes howe'er important,
To trouble thee with farther argument.
What mind can cavil at the Christian practice!
But on some themes of holy speculation,
I have my doubts. I'll go to good Alvarez,
The hermit of the dale. I'm sure, he'll solve them;
Or not inveigle me with sophistry.
Betrayed in youth (before we learn suspicion)
By a perfidious world, his shining talents
He long hath buried in a devious wild,
Adorned with nature's rich, fantastick scenes!
I'll not lose time; for I'm impelled by love!
All-conquering power! did not thy interest, now,
Promote superiour duty; I should fear
That o'er it thou wouldst claim despotick sway,
And prove victorious! Thou art Heaven below!
And, hence, 'tis thine, even in religious minds,
To rival, to out-rival, Heaven above!

[Exit.