University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

Scene—The Palace Gardens.—On one side is a Bank, The Castle Towers are seen through the Trees in the Back-Ground.
Adelgitha (much agitated) enters with a Letter, followed by Claudia and Dercetus.
ADELGITHA
[to herself].
This, this to me?— [To Dercetus]
—'Tis well;—inform thy Lord,
Claudia shall bear my answer.— [Aside]
Fiend! Barbarian!

DERCETUS.
Humbly I take my leave.

[Exit.
ADELGITHA
[giving way to her emotions].
Oh! Claudia, Claudia,
I'm lost! betrayed!

CLAUDIA.
Most cruel chance, which threw you
Defenceless in his power!

ADELGITHA.
Read there, and learn
His insults, and my danger.

CLAUDIA
[looking on the letter].
How?—An audience......
Alone.... Within twelve hours...... Else, threats that Guiscard
Shall know....

ADELGITHA
[in despair].
There! there! shall know, shall scorn, shall hate me!

CLAUDIA.
I trust not so! Your heart-felt deep contrition
Your charms, your worth, his passion, all will plead ......

ADELGITHA.
Thou think so, thou who know'st him? know'st the value
He sets on female honour?—No! I'm lost!

CLAUDIA.
What must be done?—this scroll....

ADELGITHA.
'Tis my death warrant!

CLAUDIA.
Thou dar'st not disobey it.

ADELGITHA.
True; I dare not!
Regions of flame, oh! boast ye fiercer torments,
Than to love virtue, yet not dare be virtuous,
And honour's votary, live the slave of shame!—
Hence with these doubts! I'll meet him.

CLAUDIA.
How?

ADELGITHA.
I'll meet him,
Sink at his feet, bathe them with tears, implore him
To spare a frantic wretch; and if he spurns
Me and my griefs......

CLAUDIA.
What wilt thou then do?

ADELGITHA.
Die!
Die, Claudia, die! yes; let the worst befall me,
That last resource is left me still, a dagger.
Better to cease to feel, than feel to suffer,
And Death's less painful than a life of shame.—
Yet I'd fain live!—Oh! life's so sweet! Ye powers,
Who read the human soul, and long have read
Remorse in mine, melt ye his marble heart!

CLAUDIA.
Heaven grant it!—Yet this conference...... Such close parley,
Such frequent meetings well may raise suspicion....

ADELGITHA
[alarmed].
True!—true!

CLAUDIA.
Should any curious ear surprise
Your converse......

ADELGITHA.
I were lost!

CLAUDIA.
A private passage
Leads to St. Hilda's Cave......

ADELGITHA.
Right!—There securely ...
Unseen.... unheard.... Oh! shame! and shall I steal
From Guiscard's sight to meet the wretch, who dared
Insult my hearing.... though the skies rained fire,
I would not!—Lo! where Guiscard comes; and surely
In search of me!—Oh! in that hour I see
Those eyes, which seek me now, contemptuous shun me!
If I've a dagger and a heart, I swear,
That hour's my last!

CLAUDIA.
Oh! Heaven!

ADELGITHA
[firmly].
'Tis said! 'Tis sworn!
I cannot, will not live, unloved by Guiscard!
Could he forgive.... Who knows? Twelve years of truth,
Of lasting love, and deep remorse.... I'll dare it.

CLAUDIA.
What mean'st thou?

ADELGITHA.
'Tis the crisis of my fate.
Withdraw.

CLAUDIA
[anxious].
Dear friend, be cautious!....

ADELGITHA.
Cautious, say'st thou?
I'm desperate, Claudia, desperate! Leave me! leave me.

[Exit Claudia.
Enter Guiscard.
GUISCARD.
At length I'm free! How tedious seemed the duties
Which kept me from thy sight; but now once more
I live for love and thee. Why darts thine eye
That piercing glance, as it would search my soul?
Speak, my best love?

ADELGITHA.
Thou hast a heart, my Guiscard,
Firm, generous, just......

GUISCARD.
That heart is Adelgitha's.

ADELGITHA.
Not Virtue's more?

GUISCARD.
Not more; as much; for surely
Virtue and Adelgitha form but one.

ADELGITHA.
Oh! would that now thy heart were mine, mine wholly!
Then pity's sighs should drown the voice of Justice,
And angry Honour's flame be quenched with tears.

GUISCARD.
What means that wish? Thou surely would'st not plead
The cause of Vice?

ADELGITHA.
I'd plead the cause of weakness.

GUISCARD.
Whose cause?

ADELGITHA.
A woman's and a wretch!

GUISCARD.
What asks she?

ADELGITHA.
Peace! honour! life!—And hopes them all from thee!

GUISCARD.
From me?—More plainly speak.

ADELGITHA.
Among my damsels
Is one, whose faults of youth.... I blush to name.
When on her cheek Sixteen had scarcely shed
The bright reflection of its roseate wings,
While yet she knew not guile, but thought mankind
Pure as her heart, (for then her heart was pure)
A wounded youth beneath her father's roof
Found kind protection.—Long she nursed him, watched him,
Pitied, and soothed: and when she saw him suffer,
The fond thing wept herself!—He was a villain!
Prayers, sighs, tears, oaths, nothing was spared to win her;
She listened, and believed!—Her heart was weak,
She fell; his heart was false, he fled!

GUISCARD.
Best love!
Thy story both affects and pains. Oh! spare me
The tale of sorrows, which admit no cure.
Her doom is fixed; no power can now recall it;
Honour, (like life) once lost, is lost for ever!
And she, who rashly leaps its fatal bounds,
Like the sad ghost, who floats o'er Lethe's billows,
Goes to return no more!

ADELGITHA.
Oh! doom too harsh,
Which bars out hope, and seals the lips of mercy!
If all think thus, what then avails repentance?
Why waste brief life in tears? 'Twere wiser plunge
Headlong in guilt, reject that useless virtue
Which others prize not, and in pleasure's bowl
Drown conscience and its horrors.

GUISCARD.
Were this life
The only life, perhaps, 'twere wisely argued.
But there's another world, more good, more happy;
A treasury, where each tear repentance sheds,
Is stored with precious care, as men store pearls;
Where conscience, here guilt's bitterest foe, becomes
Its firmest advocate, and hours of pain
Are paid with Heavenly bliss and life eternal.
Such fruits repentance bears!

ADELGITHA.
Oh! Guiscard! Guiscard!
How much more perfect wert thou, could'st thou pardon
Men for not being angels!

GUISCARD.
Is't so hard then
To love sweet virtue? In my sight so loathsome
Vice seems, her aspect makes me start in horror,
And marvel men have courage to be guilty.
But to thy damsel's tale—Her lover fled....?

ADELGITHA.
Remorse ne'er left her more—and oh! such anguish....
Such floods of tears....

GUISCARD.
I fear, they flowed not long!
Who once has fallen, will fall again; and soon
No doubt the tears, which her first lover caused her,
Some second kist away.

ADELGITHA.
No, Guiscard, no!
Though suitors young, and fair, and rich, and noble,
Sighed at her feet, and vowed themselves her subjects,
As Dian's statue cold she heard their suit,
And for that false one's sake rejected all.

GUISCARD.
Best had a convent's gloom....

ADELGITHA.
But then came one
So past all praise, so perfect! whom to see
And love was equal! One, whom Nature fashioned
With curious care, and when her work was finished,
Cried—“Lo! my masterpiece!”—This wond'rous—man,
Born to be loved, and love! This man, o'er whom
You hold much power....

GUISCARD.
Ha!—No! thou can'st not mean it!
Thou can'st not wish, I should exert that power
To place pollution in his arms, and bind
With Hymen's sacred bands a wanton's temples.
The damsel loves?—Ne'er let her hope to know
Those best of earthly blessings, fair renown,
Respect, and love of those whose love's an honour:
Be those bright gems to deck her brow reserved,
That virgin bride, chaste spouse, and blameless parent,
Whose husband counts his wife Heaven's choicest gift,
And son ne'er blushed to hear his mother mentioned.
She loves, thou say'st? Dares love a man of honour?
Were she his wife......

ADELGITHA.
She is!— [hastily, and with great emotion.]


GUISCARD.
What? Holds my court
One man so dead to shame, so blind with passion,
He with a wanton shares his name?

ADELGITHA.
Oh! Heaven!—
He knew not....

GUISCARD.
Knew not?

ADELGITHA.
Knows not now....

GUISCARD.
What say'st thou?

ADELGITHA.
Her passion for her lord .. Her pure strict morals ..
Twelve years, in virtue past, concealed....

GUISCARD.
Oh! monstrous!
Twelve years concealed? Oh! art, that mocks belief!
Think you, a second fault absolves a former,
And shall the hypocrite make clear the wanton?
Think you...... Twelve years? What! did she feign so well then?
Was she so arch a mistress in dissembling?
Clasped to her dotard's heart did ne'er one word,
One sigh betray.... the fond dupe moves my pity!
When in her breast he poured his dearest secrets,
She had one mystery still he ne'er could pierce:
Love as he might, her heart had still one fold
Which set all trust, all fondness at defiance:
And haply, when he'd marvel at her virtue,
(Her virtue pure from doubt, and past all praise,)
She'd smile! and tender thanks! and joy in secret
To see her fool so cheated, and so pleased.
Fye! fye! 'tis odious!

ADELGITHA
[extremely agitated].
Yet one word.... one question....
Say, 'twere thy case; would'st thou refuse all pardon....
All trust.... all love...... should some most dear relation....
Thy friend of youth.... thy much-loved sister....

GUISCARD
[violently]
Mine!
Proceed not!—Mine!—My sister!—Mine!—Oh! Gods!
Were I so curst, and owned I such a shame,
And were my heart so base as still to love her,
I'd tear that heart out!

ADELGITHA.
Guiscard!

GUISCARD.
Let her fly!
(Fly where she might, she'd bear her worst foe with her,
The sense of shame deserved!) Far let her fly
From all the world, but most of all from me;
For should I find her, with my sword I'd drain
Her veins of that hot blood, which stained my own.
Let her in cloistered gloom, in prayer and penance,
Waste her sad days, abandoned, wretched, raving,
By all abhorred, renounced, despised, forgotten;
Till crushed by shame, and frantic with despair,
Her own rash hand....

ADELGITHA
[with a cry of pain].
My heart will burst!

GUISCARD.
Just Heavens!
My love! My life!

ADELGITHA.
Fear not!—A sudden faintness....

GUISCARD.
Nay, but thou'rt wond'rous pale!—and no one's near....
Rest on this bank!—'Tis well!—I'll fly for help.... [going]


ADELGITHA
[seated on the bank].
No! No!

GUISCARD.
I'll straight return!—Hoa! Claudia! Claudia!

[Exit.
ADELGITHA
[after a pause, clasps her hands, and raises them to Heaven].
No aid!—No mercy!—No resource!

[She remains as if stupefied.]
Lothair advances through the Trees.
LOTHAIR
[to himself].
Yes, Nature,
Thou art most beauteous!—This fair grove... those flowers
So richly dyed.... and oh! that balmy gale,
How breathed it o'er my soul delicious langour!
Ah! heavenly Imma, half these charms are yours,
And that you breathe it, makes the air so sweet:
Your magic presence lends the rills their music,
Inspires the birds, stains every flower more glowing,
And sheds celestial light o'er all the groves!
But soft!—the Princess!

ADELGITHA.
Oh! Lothair!

LOTHAIR.
How! weeping?— [throws himself at her feet.]

Oh! pardon this presumption! Can I witness
Those tears, nor ask their cause, and seek to dry them?
Can I assist.... console.... relieve....

ADELGITHA.
Relief?
My woes admit of none!

LOTHAIR.
Oh! say not so!
My arm, my soul are thine.—I'll search...... I'll find.....
Some means may sure be found.... Oh! deign to trust me!
Thou canst not doubt the creature of thy bounty;
The orphan youth whose life's thy gift; and gladly
He'd lose that life to serve thee!—yes, ye thunders,
Bursting, accuse my crime; and aim, ye lightnings,
At this ungrateful breast your fiercest darts,
Whene'er I doubt to shed my heart's best blood,
To spare those radiant eyes one tear of anguish!

Michael-Ducas appears in the Back-ground.
ADELGITHA.
Thou generous youth!

MICHAEL.
How! kneeling at her feet?

ADELGITHA.
Yes! yes! I'll trust thee! Thou shalt know my danger;
Then counsel, aid.... and save me if thou canst.
There is a secret....
[Here Michael-Ducas interposes between them.]
—Ha! Byzantium!

MICHAEL.
Soh!
My thoughts then wronged you not! Your heart it seems
Is not such ice but youthful fires can melt it?
You counted me your dupe? No, no! I guest
Some happier rival steeled your heart, not virtue;
And when this morn I marked your fond emotion,
Your blush while round his neck you hung yon jewel,
That rival stood confest—'Tis plain! confirmed!
Marry! the scene's well chosen!—Murmuring streams....
Soft beds of fragrant flowers .. convenient shades..
And amorous ring-doves cooing o'er your heads,
While your love kneels before you....!

ADELGITHA.
Base aspersion!
Gods! do I live to hear it?

LOTHAIR.
Mark me, Prince!
Had living man but Imma's father spoken
Those words, my sword had struck him dead already.
What means thy charge?—Thou canst not give it credit,
Thyself!—Her spotless virtue....

MICHAEL.
Hers? Her virtue?
Ha! ha!—Tell others that strange tale! [laughing spitefully.]


ADELGITHA.
Oh! heavens!

MICHAEL.
For me, I've found her art!—The spell is broken!
I know her frail and false....

LOTHAIR.
Now blisters seize
His tongue, who calls her so!

ADELGITHA
[anxiously.]
Lothair! Lothair!
This warmth destroys me!

LOTHAIR.
Should I bear with patience
To hear thee wronged, thou best and purest?—No!
My blood's on fire, and should be: he's no man,
Who listens calmly, while a woman's slandered.
[To Michael]
She frail? Oh! insult past enduring!—She? Unheard-of falsehood!

MICHAEL
[furious].
How!

LOTHAIR.
Yes, Emperor, yes:
Whate'er thy rank, I'm for this hour thy equal.
I say, 'tis false; and though an angel spoke it,
I'd still repeat—“the charge is false as hell!”—

MICHAEL.
What! this to me? Thou contradict me, thou?
Soars thy presumption then a pitch so high,
Minion, because thy silken locks have snared
That fond-one's heart....

LOTHAIR.
Oh! gods!—Yet.... yet be wise!—
The rage which boils my blood....

MICHAEL.
Dost think, I fear it?
Let it blaze forth thy rage; 'twill move my laughter:
And if thou need'st more insults to provoke thee,
This makes the measure full.— [striking him.]


LOTHAIR
[drawing his sword.]
Draw! draw this moment!— [frantic with passion]

Draw and defend thyself.

MICHAEL.
This to thy heart, boy!— [they fight]


ADELGITHA.
Help! help!

[Lothair's sword breaks, and he is beaten on his knees]
LOTHAIR.
Oh! faithless sword!

ADELGITHA.
He falls!

MICHAEL
[raising his sword to stab him.]
Thou diest!

ADELGITHA
[throwing herself before Lothair.]
Hold! tyrant, hold! or stab him through my bosom!

GUISCARD
[without.]
Speed, Claudia, speed!

ADELGITHA
[starting.]
My husband's voice!

MICHAEL
[menacing.]
He comes!
Now tremble!

Guiscard enters hastily, followed by Claudia, Julian, and Guards.
GUISCARD.
Clash of arms!—How's this?—Lothair?
Byzantium too? Their swords unsheathed, their eyes
Like blazing lamps through rage?—Explain this mystery;
Speak, Princess!

ADELGITHA.
Guiscard.... Terror choaks my voice:
I cannot!— [she leans on Claudia.]


MICHAEL
[soothing.]
Yet what fear'st thou now, dear lady?
The danger's past; thou'rt safe. Dost mark? Quite safe.
'Tis I who tell thee so, thy friend, thy servant,
Whose proudest boast will be, He saved thy honour!— [expressively.]


ADELGITHA
[comprehending him.]
Ha!—then there's hope again!

GUISCARD.
Her honour! Saved it!....
From whom?

MICHAEL.
I wandered near this spot, when shrieks
Alarmed my hearing; hither swift I sped,
And lo! thy wife by ruffian grasp detained....
That ruffian was Lothair!

GUISCARD.
Lothair?

ADELGITHA
[struck with horror and surprise.]
Oh! monster!

LOTHAIR
[confounded.]
How! how!

MICHAEL.
He drew his faulchion: mine already
Was bared in Virtue's cause, and fierce we fought
Till by thy footsteps scared....

LOTHAIR.
Oh! monstrous fraud,
Which owns no fellow! Where shall Truth find refuge,
Driven from her purest throne and fittest shelter,
The hearts and lips of monarchs ?—Princely Guiscard,
By that eternal fire which burns above us,
If e'er I harboured in my breast one wish,
One thought injurious to thy consort's virtue,
Or view'd her with one glance less chaste or holy
Than dying hermits view their patron-saints,
May Heaven's red arm.... But why assert my innocence?
The Princess knows it; to her lips I'll trust me.

MICHAEL.
And by that test I'll stand—Speak Adelgitha,
Thy suffrage none can doubt: declare the truth,
Unmask the traitor, and confirm my tale.— [significantly.]


ADELGITHA.
No, I can bear no more.—Unmask the traitor?
I will; and show his guilt so black, so hideous,
The sickening sun shall veil his orb in clouds,
And think mankind no longer worth his care.
Hear me, my Lord! If there is faith in woman,
I now assert Lothair is....

MICHAEL.
[interrupting her, and showing the picture, unseen by all but Adelgitha, on whom the attention of the rest is entirely fixed.]
Lady! lady!
Beware!

GUISCARD and LOTHAIR.
Speak! speak!

MICHAEL
[pointing to the picture, and threatening.]
Beware!

ADELGITHA
[hesitating].
Lothair.... is.... guilty. [Falls on Claudia's bosom.]


LOTHAIR.
Gods! did I hear aright?

MICHAEL
[aside].
I triumph!

GUISCARD.
Miscreant!
Hoa! Julian.—Bear yon villain hence, and chain him
Deep in the Western Tower.

ADELGITHA
[entreating.]
He saved your life!

GUISCARD.
To load it with disgrace? Ten thousand lives
Could not repay the outrage! May all torments
E'er forged by sleepless tyrants still pursue
That wretch, who winds him round a heart, more safely
To steal its quiet, and to stab its honour:
Who basely trifling with a brave man's peace,
And wrapped in friendship's sacred garb, exults
To strew the nuptial couch with shame and grief,
And thinks a friend's disgrace his proudest triumph!
Bear him away.

LOTHAIR.
One word—By what strange spell
Yon dark magician in his chains has bound me,
I know not; but I know myself most guiltless,
And thee, Prince, most deceived—I'll say no more;
Do with me what thou wilt; whate'er thou dost,
The memory of thy bounties past shall never
Die in thy servant's heart; the axe, that kills
My life, shall spare that grateful love I bear thee;
E'en at the block I'll bless thy gracious name,
Pray that thou ne'er may'st know I perished guiltless,
And plead in yonder world of truth and peace
My Sovereign's cause with Him, to whom he sent me.
[To ADELGITHA sternly.]
For thee, who....

[He stops, crosses over to her, takes off the jewel which she gave him, restores it with a look of mingled grief and anger, and goes off in silence. Julian and Guards follow him.]
ADELGITHA
[aside.]
Death is sure less painful!—Guiscard....
My bosom bleeds—my brain turns round!—Lothair....
His youth.. his worth.... I know not what I say..
But spare him!

GUISCARD.
Think, my love, how base the crime
Of him thou bidst me spare! His outrage wronged
Not thee alone, but all thy sex in thee,
That sex, which should have claimed his best protection.
Who strikes his dagger in a female's heart
Acts kinder, than who stains that female's honour,
Death being happier than a shameful life,
Since she who lives to shame but lives to suffer.

MICHAEL.
Oh! true! most true!— [Aside to Adelgitha]
Thou hear'st him, Princess?

ADELGITHA
[aside.]
Fiend!
[To Guiscard]
And can then Adelgitha sue in vain
To Guiscard? Can my tears....

MICHAEL.
Those tears are fruitless;
Thy lord is firm: and while you sue, fair Princess,
Forget not, that I hold your suit an insult
To me, the accuser, me.— [In a low voice]
Speak one more word,
And all's revealed.—I hate that boy—He dies!

ADELGITHA.
Why then my fate is fixed! Hope, fare thee well!
I'll cease to weary heaven with prayers for blessings:
Beset with foes.. caught in the toils.. distracted....
I'll pray no more, or only pray to die!
Death heals all wounds; with life all sorrow ceases,
And Heaven will show that mercy, man denies!

[Exit wildly.
GUISCARD.
Good Claudia, follow.

[Exit Claudia.
MICHAEL.
Ha! this strong emotion....
These tears.... this frantic anguish.... in some eyes
Would seem suspicious....

GUISCARD.
Not in mine, Byzantium,
Which look on mean suspicions as on crimes.
I scorn the man, whose selfish pride it flatters
To think all truth and goodness live confined
Within the narrow bounds of his own bosom.
That which I would not stoop to do myself,
I judge, that others would not stoop to do.
I trust, that still the world contains some virtue,
Had rather still be wronged than still suspect,
And hold it due to man, to Heaven, and justice,
To judge the hearts of others by my own .

MICHAEL.
Methinks, Lothair might make you justly doubt
The prudence of this system; well might raise
That boy's ingratitude some slight regret
For lavished care and bounty misapplied.

GUISCARD.
No, Emperor; I regret not, what I've done,
But that his vice prevents my doing more.
Twelve years I cherished that delightful thought,
—“Virtue was his, and that to me he owed it.”—
The dream is flown; but shall I count as nothing
A dream so long, so flattering while it lasted?
Can his foul actions stain my fair intent,
Or does his falsehood make my act less generous?
Of man's ingratitude let those complain,
Whose bounty flows to serve themselves, not others;
But he ne'er thinks his kindness ill rewarded,
Who acts, as virtue bids, for virtue's sake.

MICHAEL.
I must perforce admire such lofty thoughts;
Yet more admire the theory, than the practice.
Farewell, Apulia! still pursue thy system;
Still think all men are just, all women faithful;
Still fly conviction's light; still love, still trust,
Still find thyself deceived.... but ne'er grow wiser.

[Exit.
GUISCARD.
Go, narrow heart! I loathe thy selfish prudence!—
This wretched youth.... so free from taint his conduct....
'Tis wond'rous strange!—But Adelgitha said it!—
He's guilty; 'tis past doubt!— [going]


Enter Imma.
IMMA.
Stay, princely Guiscard,
And soothe a wretch's anguish!

GUISCARD.
Beauteous Imma,
Why flow those tears?

IMMA.
A fearful tale has reached me!
He's false! his life is forfeit!—Oh! that thought
Struck like a dagger to my heart!—I shrieked,
And wild with anguish, hither flew to plead
For one.... the falsest.... dearest.... for Lothair!

GUISCARD.
What! plead for one, whose crime....

IMMA.
I know it all;
His crime, its penalty, and my despair!
But though his heart is false, mine still is true;
Still, still, though fall'n, Lothair is Imma's angel!
Oh! judge from this how vast my love's excess;
I know him faithless, and adore him still.

GUISCARD.
And did Lothair possess so rich a gem
As Imma's heart, and throw that gem away?
Oh! double treachery!—This offence alone
Deserves....

IMMA.
What have I done!—Oh! thoughtless girl!—
Forget my words!—forget my wrongs, my love,
And only heed my tears and my despair!
Spare him! oh! spare him!

GUISCARD.
Cease, unhappy fair-one,
To urge a suit, I cannot, must not grant.
The law will claim....

IMMA.
Yet may thy sovereign power
O'er-rule that law's decree....

GUISCARD.
No, Princess, no.
While we have laws, those laws must be obeyed;
And fruitless 'twere, that Justice bound a fillet
O'er her impartial eyes, if royal power
Could make her scales incline, as humour swayed.
It must not be.

IMMA.
Oh! Heaven!

Enter Julian.
JULIAN.
A Grecian vessel
Rides in the port, my Prince, and brings, 'tis said,
Terms of submission from the rebel Emperor,
Vanquish'd Alexius.

GUISCARD.
Straight I come—

[Julian retires up the Stage.
IMMA.
Oh! Guiscard!
Leave me not thus!—Lothair!—One look of mercy ....
One word of hope....

GUISCARD.
Could you peruse my heart,
Princess, you'd know, a king's most painful moments
Are, when he sees such tears, and must not dry them.
Too blest were monarchs, if when Grief implores,
They dared indulge that pity, which they feel.
But he, who wisely thinks, and justly governs,
If prudence and compassion strive, forgets not,
Mercy, though sweet, can but relieve a few,
But justice is that good, which blesses all.

[Exit.
IMMA.
He leaves me to despair!—Lost wretched maid,
Where shall I turn me!—Ah! how changed my prospects,
From those so beauteous, which were mine this morn!
Lothair returned..... was faithful..... and was Imma's;
He's false... his life is lost... and mine's a blank!
Thus on the clouds Sicilian swains admire
The gorgeous show, Morgana's wand has raised:
Temples, with emerald domes and ruby pillars,
Dazzle their wondering sight; but while they gaze
The spell dissolves, and all the fairy fabric
Melts into vacant air.—Undone! undone!

JULIAN.
He's gone, and none observes us.—Hear me, Princess!

IMMA.
Oh! leave me to my grief!

JULIAN.
I come to soothe it.

IMMA.
How? Speak!

JULIAN.
I guard Lothair....

IMMA.
And wilt thou save him?
Say, “yes,” and I'll adore thee!

JULIAN.
Born in Spain,
I languish for my native land, and wilt thou
Provide such sums as may from want secure me,
This night I'll fly from Guiscard and Otranto,
And make Lothair the partner of my fate!

IMMA.
Oh! words of rapture!—Speed thy flight, good fellow!
My wealth, my gems, rich diamonds, blushing rubies,
And chains of pearl, which decked a Persian queen,
All, all are thine

JULIAN.
Beneath the Western Tower
Soon as 'tis dark, expect me! Thine own hand
Shall break thy lover's chains—Hark! some one comes:
Farewell till night. Be cautious!—

[Exit.
IMMA.
He shall live, then!
Lothair shall live!—But oh! he's false!—No matter.
He lives, and lives through me!—The rest I'll heed not.
Oh! could my heart, laid bleeding on the scaffold,
Redeem thy life, Lothair, I'd gladly rend
The trembler from my breast, and tell thee, dying,
—“See, false-one, see, how fond a heart you stabbed!”—

[Exit.