 | The Fall of Portugal ; or, the Royal Exiles |  |
9
ACT I.
SCENE I.
—An Apartment in the Royal Palace.The Prince, Emanuel, Alonzo.
Prince.
This day, my friends, is pregnant with event,
And consternation saddens every face:
A realm which rais'd its head among the nations,
Droops in despondence, and expects its fall—
The hour when Nature, in convulsion, hurl'd
Our lofty domes and temples to the dust,
Was fraught with less calamity—the crown
Now trembles on our head—the fierce Napoleon
Not satisfied with rapine burns for more;
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Some tool, some upstart fav'rite, to the throne.
Emanuel.
The madness of Ambition knows no bounds;
But, still aspiring, rears its daring front,
To meet the lightning, which the vengeful arm
Of Justice launches on the impious head:
Yet should the Tyrant rule uncurb'd, unblasted;
All is not lost, my Prince, heaven has in store
One consolation left to raise th' oppress'd;
Behold! a navy waits your royal call
To waft us safely to your western world;
Whose arms ev'n now extend to greet her Prince,
And give that liberty denied him here.
Prince.
Thank gracious heaven, that one resource remains;
And should imperious Fate our flight command
We must obey—our duty is submission—
Yet feels my heart an agonizing pang,
To leave such numerous subjects of tried worth;
Of firm fidelity towards our crown,
To all the horrors of a tyrant's rage:
Yet would my life, in sacrifice, preserve
My faithful people from impending bondage,
That life were theirs—but nought my stay avails,
Save to exalt the triumph of his power,
And add another victim to captivity.
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All is prepar'd, my Liege,—the British fleet
Awaits, to give safe conduct to our voyage.
Prince.
Enough—my family demands my presence:
Watch well, lest Treason, lurking in the dark,
Assassinate our purpose—Treason's wiles
Should be suspected from a subtle foe.—
How comes it that Alvarez keeps aloof,
And joins not in our councils?
Alonzo.
I beheld him,
Yet scarce an hour in converse with Bellegarde.
Prince.
With Bellegarde!
Keep on that Gallic tool an eagle's eye,
His insolence each moment rears its crest:
That Frenchman's bosom is a dungeon foul,
Breeding the toad's and serpent's venom'd fangs,
Which calls on Caution to repel his guile—
At noon we meet in conference again.
[Exit.
12
Too much Alvarez courts that haughty Gaul,
Who priding in his master's pomp of power,
In imitation, proves his arrogance.
Alonzo.
This has not 'scap'd th' observance of my eye:
Pray heaven that my suspicions may be false—
Perhaps unfounded—but a whisper steals
That to the fair Elvira he makes court;
Who meets his soaring wishes with a smile:
But much I doubt that in his Prince's favor,
Alvarez ranks so highly as of late:
His bold ambition sports too high a wing,
To claim that peerless damsel for his prize;
A beauteous scion from Braganza's root:
Such rash presumption must have given offence;
But, lo Alvarez' self.
Enter Alvarez.
Alvarez.
My noble friends;
I greatly fear that I have play'd the truant;
When did you last behold our gracious Prince?
Emanuel.
His Highness has just left us, marveling much,
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From councils of such moment to the state.
Alvarez.
Affairs of no small weight have kept me hence,
For well ye know, th' importance of this day.
Alonzo.
A most eventful day! our country's fate
Hangs on a spider's web, that asks no storm
To tear it into shreds—
Alvarez.
Nor need we dread it—
The frightful cloud that hovers o'er our realm,
Is of Imagination's coinage, Fancy's sport,
That, wanton, conjures up terrific forms
To shake our courage—we disdain such fear;
Reason at once annihilates the phantom.
Emanuel.
What meanest thou?
Alvarez.
Napoleon is our friend;
No cloud of thunder, but a summer's sun,
To cheer our gloomy land of apprehension.
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Suspect thy confidence is on a base
That sinking will betray.
Alvarez.
Fear not my Lord;
Napoleon is a cedar which out spreads
His shelt'ring branches to protect the world;
Whose root in Earth's deep centre fix'd; whose head
Amid the stars: beneath his ample shade,
Braganza's House shall flourish long in peace.
Alonzo.
Alvarez, 'tis a tree, a poisonous tree,
Nurs'd by the victims of unbounded pride;
Nurs'd by the purple floods of precious life;
Nurs'd by the widow's and the orphan's tears.
Perish my country, perish all our race,
E're it shall thrive beneath such baleful shade.
How can thy tongue turn advocate for vice?
Methinks thine eloquence would gild his crimes,
And to a demon give a cherub's face.
To trust were folly, for Napoleon's deeds,
All justify suspicion—ev'n Credulity
Would blush to listen to his promises.
Alvarez, give one solitary act,
Brighten'd by Honor's ray, and I will thank thee,
And cancel my opinion of Napoleon.
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Too hastily ye listen to reports:
Too often Slander steals the voice of Truth:
But grant Napoleon's vices, grant his guilt;
Where is the hand to save us from his gripe?
Brave as thou art, to warlike deeds enur'd,
Resistance were in vain; our trembling state,
Crush'd by his arm, would sink to rise no more.
He offers friendship—shadow'd by his wing,
Lo Portugal secure, and stands rever'd.
Alonzo.
The shadow of his wing! the shade of death!
How many stars, with brilliancy that shone,
Fair constellations in our hemisphere,
Have disappear'd behind that baleful cloud!
Where is Batavia, Venice, Genoa?
Known but by name, or only known his slaves;
And yet he offer'd friendship to those states;
Seduc'd by flattery; crush'd them with his kindness:
More deadly is his friendship than his hate:
The one, resisted, gives us only death;
The other, chains; and what is worse—disgrace.
Alvarez.
If vain resistance prove, what other step?
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To shun the Tyrant's yoke.
Alvarez.
Romantic schemes!
States, Don Emanuel, like mankind, grow old,
And is it now, bow'd down by weight of years,
For Portugal to ramble on adventures,
And found new empires on a foreign shore?
Emanuel.
Nurs'd in the calm and sunshine of a court,
Ye give to pigmy dangers, giant forms;
While to th' experienc'd eye, the frightful voyage,
Is but a summer party, bent on pleasure;
And when your Fancy paints our distant lands,
Ye then reverse the telescope, and view
A mighty empire as a small domain.
Alvarez.
Enough my Lords—we differ on this head,
But one there is, in which our hearts unite;
To strain each nerve to serve our noble Prince:
Him must I seek or merit his reproof.
[Exit.
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Messenger.
My Lords,
Beyond the bounds prescrib'd the French advance,
And reach our city e'er the setting sun.
Alonzo.
There is no room, Emanuel, for delay,
The die is cast—'tis liberty or chains.
Emanuel.
Say, is the Prince inform'd?
Messenger.
But now I left him;
And as in haste I pass'd the Palace gate,
Th' Ambassador of France demanded audience.—
His Highness sends his orders for your presence.
[Exeunt.
18
SCENE II.
—A Street.Alvarez and Bellegarde meeting.
Bellegarde.
Alvarez, why that gloom upon thy brow?
Alvarez.
Thou read'st the inward working of my mind,
Ambition and Revenge strive there for mastery.
This morn I gain'd an audience of the Prince,
And for Elvira's hand I press'd my suit.
Alvarez' blood it seems must not presume
To mix with royalty.
Bellegarde.
I thought as much;
But let not that disturb thee; 'ere the morn
The haughty Regent kneels to thee, Alvarez.
Our troops are with rapidity advancing;
Pass a few hours, they enter at your gates.
Alvarez.
Knows this the Prince?
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The Regent is inform'd
A messenger arriv'd—I follow'd him,
And enter'd as he left the royal presence:
Well knowing the advantage which attends
On first impressions.
Alvarez.
How was he affected?
Bellegarde.
His soul on fire, and resolutely bent
On emigration. Little did I think
His placid, lamb-like spirit could assume
The lion's port, and be at once the king.
He bade me instantly command their halt;
Or trusting to his own, and British friends,
Who sought his safety, he would straight embark.
I sooth'd him; said Napoleon was his friend,
Who wish'd to snatch him from th' insidious grasp
Of that proud Isle—indignant, he replied
He was no school boy—could distinguish well
The colour of his friends—nor would endure
That other powers should subjugate his will;
And, fraught with insolence, divide his throne.
Alvarez.
Didst thou succeed in calming him, Bellegarde?
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Soon as I felt his resolution firm,
I chang'd my ground, and wore Submission's face;
Nay more, to lull him into dead security,
At once I penn'd dispatches in his presence,
With peremptory orders for a halt:
This soften'd him.
Alvarez.
Thou dost not mean a halt?
Bellegarde.
No, no Alvarez, think'st thou Bellegarde
Has serv'd the wily Emperor so long
Thus to be dup'd?—Another messenger
Will be dispatch'd to bid them force their march,
And instantly detach some troops of horse
To hold the fort-lin'd Tagus in subjection—
Thus caught, Braganza's sun shall set 'ere night:
But be it still our care it doth not rise
With brighter glory in the western sphere:
His fleet, prepar'd, beneath his treasure groans;
All which is thine, if thou canst yet delay
The purpos'd voyage. For thy counsel's sake
I think he holds thee dear—he knows thee wise
And leans with faith on thee; yet sternly spurns
Thee as an abject slave, too mean to mix
Thy blood with that which flows through royal veins.
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This stings—this rouses my advent'rous soul
To gain revenge and empire at a grasp.
'Tis true he asks my counsel, yet suspects;
And tho' he deems me such a humble worm,
Yet shall he feel that worm conceals a fang.
Bellegarde.
There spoke Alvarez' self, whose soaring mind
Is form'd for empire—give Ambition wing;
But, waste we not our time; each sand is precious:
The Council meets at noon—persuade the Prince
To trust the generous clemency of France;
And may thy golden hopes of future greatness
Give to thy tongue a splendid eloquence.
The navy lost—irreparable the loss!
Fain would Napoleon's hand the trident grasp—
Who holds it, holds the sceptre of the world;
But wanting, feels himself scarce half a king.
Alvarez, clothe thee in a deep disguise;
Nor let them mark in thee the Emp'ror's friend—
Close in thy heart conceal the future storm.
Alvarez.
Discard thy dread—Alvarez boldly dares
The road, the dangerous road that leads to empire.
The smile of Courtesey shall mask my cheek,
While underneath, the mine, destruction fraught,
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Will still adhere him to his firm resolve;
The promis'd aid of Britain spurs him on.
Bellegarde.
Curse on that country—the malignant star
That sheds a pestilence where'er it shines,
And palsies every nerve of enterprise;
Ev'n now her navy, like a murky cloud,
Hangs threat'ning on the zenith of thy hopes;
Yet can it only thunder at a distance,
Nor reach us here—farewell—success attend thee.
The Council ended; let us meet again.
[Exit Alva.
Bellegarde.
Poor, dup'd Alvarez, go, thy hopes enjoy;
Blind to the quicksands which thy foot shall tread:
Fool! dost thou think the giant arm of France
Exerts itself to place thee on a throne,
And by thy side a Princess of the House
Of poor, devoted, weak, proscrib'd Braganza!—
Chains and a dungeon will become thee better.
The Crown, Alvarez, never will be thine:
Were vacant every throne the world displays,
Napoleon would find tenants for them all.
Thus Frenchmen rule by art as well as arms;
And use Ambition, just to edge their tools;
And deem them lumber, when the work is done.
[Exit.
| The Fall of Portugal ; or, the Royal Exiles | |