 | Liberty Asserted |  |
SCENE I.
Ulamar, Frontenac, Miramont.Front.
Come, be not guilty of thy own Destruction!
Believe it, I would gladly be thy Friend;
Besides that, I respect thy wondrous Virtue;
There's something so engaging in thy Person,
That I'm inclin'd with tenderness to Love thee;
But think th' Irrevocable moments fly;
The time approaches when thou must resolve.
Ul.
What to Betray my Trust? To be a Villain!
Front.
Mistake me not fond Youth!
Assist us to subdue these Warlike Nations;
And under us thou shalt Command them all.
Ula.
What right have I to rule these Warlike Nations?
Front.
The Justest in the World, the right of Nature:
Thou singly hast more Virtue than them all;
And therefore art by Nature form'd to rule them.
Ul.
With bare Desert a generous mind is satisfy'd;
If I have Virtue give me leave to keep it?
Complying with thy offer would destroy it,
And I should then have more and blacker Crimes
Than all the Warlike Iroquois together;
But thou mistak'st thy Man, I have a Soul
That scorns a Tyrant, and a Slave alike;
And thou would'st have me both:
But since thy offer kindly is design'd;
Ingratitude I doubly will return it.
Front.
Return it, say'st thou? How?
Ul.
Set me but free, and I'll in kind return it.
Front.
In kind?
Ul.
Yes, Rouze thy self, and shake off this vile Yoak,
Under the which thou bow'st thy Neck and groan'st:
I'll make thee King of all Canadian France,
And the brave English, and the Warlike Iroquois
Shall both support thy Claim.
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I'll hear no more; say, wilt thou Live or Die.
Mir.
Nay, hear him out; 'tis barbarous to refuse it:
Methinks that I could hear him talk for ever.
Front.
Yet be advis'd and Live.
Ul.
Not on thy terms, I'm not of Life so fond;
Weigh both our offers, and judge which is Juster;
Tyrant and Slave at once thoud'st have me turn,
And weaken and debase my freeborn mind;
That's Independant now of all but Heav'n;
And a Superiour in a Man disdains;
The greatest, best of Men are but my equals;
The guilty like thy Master my Inferiours.
Front.
Thou hast a noble Soul by Heav'n.
Mir.
A Godlike one.
Ul.
Oh how unlike is what I ask of thee?
I would Establish thee a Lawful King,
And o'er a happy People shalt thou Reign,
Would break thy ignoble Bonds, and give thee means
T' assert thy Liberty, t'assert thy Virtue;
For lurking in thy breast I see the Seeds
Of ev'ry noble Virtue; but by custom
And vain opinion choak'd, and blind obedience
To the unjust ambition of thy Master,
As thou art Man, thou art Generous and Brave,
True Maganimity adorns thy mind,
And thou art as Dearly awful to my Soul
As if thou wert my Father.
But as thou art French, thou art Base, Perfidious, Perjur'd,
And Sacrificest to thy Tyrants will
Thy very Honour, and thy very Virtue.
Mir.
Mind that my Lord.
Ul.
Thou would'st have me Betray my Trust, my Country,
The Solemn'st and most Sacred of all Trusts.
I would have thee deliver those thou Rul'st,
And free them from the Bonds that wring their Hearts,
And from the Cruel Scourge that makes them Roar:
Should I comply with thee, and should undo
These Generous Nations, who are happy now
In Innocence and Freedom; but would then
Be plung'd in Vice and endless Misery;
How when I afterwards met woful sights,
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How would my Heart, within my bosom Die
To think that I had done this:
But thou who hitherto mistaken man,
Hast prostituted to thy Monarchs Pride
The noblest Talents of thy mind and Person,
Thy Wisdom, and thy Courage hast employ'd
To cast all other Nations into Chains,
And Clinch, and Rivet those that bind thy own,
Who hast been Industrous to entail Destruction
Upon the Race of Men, to all Posterity,
Ev'n thy Posterity, thy wretched Children,
If thou hast Children—
Front.
What Cruel griefs, has that Remembrance Rouz'd?
Ul.
How will thy Soul rejoyce when thou shalt come.
To turn those Talents to their Noblest use,
To bring the Nations round to Happy freedom,
And make Attonement to our Indian World,
For all the Woes thy Curst Ambition caus'd!
What Inexpressive Joy will seize thy Breast,
When thou shalt every where meet happy objects,
And think to thee, that Happiness they owe!
To hear the Shouts, the General Acclamations,
Th' unnumber'd Blessings pour'd upon thy Head:
O would'st thy Rouze thy self, and break thy Chain
How would thy Virtue, and thy Glory Shine!
And to what Height thy Happiness would Soar!
Then Impious War should here for ever cease
Which never came among these Happy Groves,
'Till thy false Race, first Landed on our Shoar.
For 'tis for Liberty we War, not Empire;
While at the Blood we spill we hourly sigh,
And Curse the Falshood of detested Slaves,
That rudely force us to Destroy our kind.
How shameful 'tis, that Men whom Heav'n has form'd
Of this vast Universe; the fellow Citizens
Should thus wage Civil and unnatural War:
All Creatures that have Life, but Men agree;
The fiercest and most Savage of the Beasts,
That makes the Forest tremble at his Roar,
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And with him like a Brother Lives in Peace.
Ev'n Fiends themselves with Fiends are ne'er at Variance;
But Barbarous Man, makes Impious War on Man,
And Leagues with Fiends against his fellow Creatures.
Mir.
O Godlike Youth! assist me all ye Pow'rs
[apart.
Who Love mankind, and who delight in Mercy,
Assist my Just design.
Ul.
But if the Justice, of the Noble cause
The freedom of our Indian World won't move thee,
If giving lasting Happiness and Peace
To all the Race of men, won't Rouze thy Blood,
If thy own Fame and Greatness won't prevail,
And if a Crown acquir'd so Brave a way,
Have no Temptations for thy Grovling mind,
Hast thou a Son t' Inherit Bliss or Woe,
For some will for their Children more perform,
Than for themselves; and all the World besides.
Mir.
A happy thought, ay, urge that motive Home.
Ul.
Nay, answer me!
Front.
Alas! thou hurt'st me, Probe that Wound no more
Ul.
Nay, if thou hast, consider while 'tis time,
On this Important now Depends his Fate,
And by thy Present choice he grows a King,
Becomes a happy and a Glorious King,
Or Lives and Dies a miserable Slave;
Come, I can plainly see thou hast a Son.
Mir.
Yes, yes, Brave Youth, we have Children, nay and VVive's,
But shamefully have been afraid to own them,
For fear our mighty Monarch should grow Angry,
And that Vile fear has lost them; if they Live,
They languish in a rude Captivity;
And to retrive them, and to keep them ours,
VVe have no hope, but by thy Generous offer.
Come rouze my Lord, how long shall we have Patience:
Have Patience! have Stupidity I would say!
For Patience is a Virtue, this a Vileness,
A very want of Spirits in our Blood:
Come, how much longer shall we crouch and Fawn,
Yes Fawn like Dogs, the more, the more we're scourg'd:
But Dogs when Beaten only Fawn on Men
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No Dog will fawn upon a Dog who tears him:
Yes, 'tis a sign we have Sacrific'd our Virtue,
Nay, and our very Reason with our Virtue,
VVhen we can thus resolve to offer up
Our Children to the Rage of Lawless Sway.
VVhat is he? That he proudly thus commands us,
Not only to commit the basest Crimes,
To grow the scourge of God, and be the plagues
Of Humane Race, while the French name is grown
A Horrour to each Corner of the Earth;
But that like Devils we our selves should feel
Doubly the Torments we inflict on others;
Should on our Children endless Woes entail,
And grow the Curse ev'n of our own Posterity.
For what? That he o'er Europe may Insult:
Yes, by the Woes of us and our Insult.
What is't to us who Reigns, if we are Wretched?
And can we well be more? Is this our comfort,
That with our selves we make mankind too wretched?
A Comfort fit for Devils, not for Men.
Ul.
Ay, now thou art my Friend indeed.
Mir.
Pray where's his Pow'r that aws us into this?
What force has he, but what we fondly give him?
For what he wrongly calls his Pow'r is ours;
And shall we use our Pow'r against our selves:
VVould any but a Wretch depriv'd of Reason,
Employ his Limbs to Wound himself and Children,
Because another has the monstrous Cruelty
To tell him 'tis his pleasure.
Front.
I've heard too much.
| Liberty Asserted | |